Analysis of a Thematic Element in Alice Walker's Everyday Use - Essay Example

Analysis of a Thematic Element in Alice Walker's Everyday UseThe role of culture and heritage in the storyEveryday Use is a beautiful piece of literature authored by Alice Walker. Quilt makes an essential component of the whole story and reflects a detailed account of the family history. That is why, it becomes a symbol of the African-American family’s heritage and culture. In the story Everyday Use, Alice Walker has used the quilt to narrate the comparison between heritage and culture from the perspective of the African-American community.

One of the main themes used by Alice Walker in Everyday Use is the conflicts that conventionally arise between the interpretation of heritage and culture. Readers are shown two completely different conceptions about culture and heritage. The characters Maggie and Mother demonstrate one notion as practical and simple. The second notion is exemplified by Dee as sophisticated. Quilt in the story is the symbol of cultural identity. The author has presented quilt as the fundamental metaphor to signify the cultural identity of the Americans.

Quilt projects the nation’s heritage and culture. This can be estimated from the fact that different characters in the story express their views on it which lay the foundations of their conceptions regarding heritage and culture. Apparently, Everyday Use does sound like a story that conveys to the reader, a Mother’s selection between values that pertain to practicality as demonstrated by the behavior of Maggie and values related to superficiality as maintained by Dee, Maggie and Dee being her two daughters.

However, an in-depth examination of the story and its theme suggests that that the author has basically made an attempt to study the concept of heritage and culture from the viewpoint of African-Americans. The story starts by introducing the characters of Dee, Maggie and Mama to the audience. Although Dee and Maggie have been introduced as sisters, yet they are almost the opposites of each other in nature. Of the two, Dee is prettier. She is popular and looks forward to making her dreams come true.

She maintains many sophisticated goals and is optimistic about attaining them. Dee is materialistic, and maintains the air of a woman who is updated on the traits of modernistic life style and follows them. It can be judged from her views on the quilt that she looks for trendy-ness in things. About Dee, the character Mama in the story says that Dee “used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant under her voice.. pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits we seemed to understand” (Walker 409).

Contrary to Dee, Maggie is timid and plain. She is simpler in her approach than Dee. She prefers to spend most of her time in home. Maggie loves the quilt and she has a reason to do that. Maggie is emotionally associated with the history of her family and appreciates it by showing her extreme love for the quilt. Mama is practical in her approach. She looks into the functionality of the quilt. Heritage and culture in the story are not presented as an ulterior motive. Dee finds it difficult to understand why mama chose to offer the quilt to Maggie and not her, when she could instead have given it to Dee.

Mama says, “I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told they were old~fashioned, out of style” (Walker). A careful examination of the association of Dee and Maggie with the culture and heritage explains why mama does so. In fact, mama approves of the association with the heritage and culture that Maggie displays and hence, chooses to give the quilt to her. Walker moulds the story this way in order to convey to the audience that culture and heritage are not necessarily reflected by the things and accessories one keeps or wears.

The beliefs one holds, the attitudes one displays and the life style one spends defines one’s relation with a particular heritage and culture. The same reason is there behind the title of the story being “Everyday Use.” By selecting this title for the story, Walker has made an attempt to convey to the audience that one must display one’s heritage and culture in everyday use in order to make them significant and maintain one’s relation with one’s history. Works Cited:Walker, Alice.

In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women. 5th ed. Harvest Books, 1974. Print.