Literature, Everyday Use by Alice Walker - Essay Example

Literature, Everyday Use by Alice Walker Introduction Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a brief story that explores the struggle that black American women are in to bring to an end racial identity and racial discrimination at a time that such a critical explanation is needed. The book teaches on what it means of true inheritance and who among the characters in the book is a symbol of the true heritage. (Lewis 5) Dee who is one of the daughters of the mother is viewed as the symbol of true heritage. The story is revolving around a mother, Mama, who had two daughters, Dee and Maggie with the mother narrating a clash over the ownership of heirloom quilts that occurred between the two daughters after Dee was from college. (Bloom 104)Dee is an educated lady dwelling in the city while Maggie, who was the younger daughter, is less learned and described by her mother as not bright. She is described as shy may be from the deformation she underwent from a fire accident that brought down their first house. She treats Dee with jealousy and awe as per Mama’s description. (Bloom 105) Everyday use of such equipment as churn, butter dish and quilts forms the center of focus and hence conflicts in the story to reveal what true heritage is. Other themes that are prominent is the short story are materialism in which Dee demanded good things specifically clothes and maintain her status quo even after she observed their beautiful house burn to ashes at a tender age. She hates their tin-roofed house with no real windows feeling like bringing it down. Community versus isolation which is demonstrated by the quilts which are made from patches of clothing of different colors is yet another theme in the story. The quits stand for Dee’s connection to her society. Dee cannot sit back at home and see poverty strike their family thus opts to run to college while the mother and Maggie find comfort in the life they live keeping tidy their small yard. (Burkhardt 3) Many scholars have attempted doing an analysis of characters in the story put forth various interpretations of the characters. This paper looks comprehensively at Nancy Tuten’s and Farrell Susan’s description of the characters Maggie and Dee besides arguing out which of the interpretations of the two writers is more accurate. Farrell Susan’s interpretation of the characters Farrell majorly centralizes on formalist theoretical argument to create a convincing argument that describing Dee as selfish and insensitive is wrong but rather Dee is a forms the heritage and a point of strategy for black Americans to cope up with the discriminatory and oppressive society. Relating the circumstances Dee is in to that of an African America n makes the argument appear to incorporate mimetic theory besides the formalist theory. Farrell explains the importance of Dee in the context quoting that the story waits the arrival of Dee from college and that Dee is a mythic stature in the mind of Mama and Maggie, with Mama straining to pump into Maggie her cultural beliefs and practices. (Kirchmayer 46) Farrell gives a lot of weight to the quotes made by Mama making mama her center of focus and a major character.In her explanation on Dee, she states that Dee has a lot of passion for the house and always takes pictures incorporating the house. This is a direct contrast to what Mama believes as mama at one time quoted that Dee felt like bringing down the house whenever she saw it as it was not as beautiful as their first home that had been burnt by fire. She reasons that now that Mama was the narrator of the story and most of what she was saying were not true and were not the actual occurrences then it automatically means that her statement that Dee hates the house is a lie having lied that Dee hated Maggie. Still Farrell states that the cultural beliefs on Mama speak not much of the other characters as of herself, evident in the scene involving the quilts. Dee and Mama are treated to be behaving in the same way having similar approaches to issues. Dee behaves in the same way while abandoning her name that she feels is oppressive as her mother is while attempting to snatch the quilts from her. (Bloom 157) Hence, Farrell argues that it is wrong to judge Dee as shallowly rooted in the heritage while Maggie and Mama as close to the heritage because all in all they are birds of a feather. From the above interpretations of the characters by Susan Farrell, she thinks what was said of Dee is wrong and false thus felt there was a need for a relook into the perceptions of Dee. Nancy Tuten’s interpretation of the characters Nancy Tuten talks of how awakened Mama is by the differences between her two daughters brought about by the scramble for quilts that Mama snatched from Dee and gave to Maggie. This was the first instance that Mama showed care and passion to Maggie in the presence of Dee. (Lewis 5) Dee thinks she is better off than Mama and Maggie because she is educated and uses her education to get anything she wants from the family. Tuten notifies us of the mood swings in Mama before and after arrival of Dee, with Mama eagerly waiting for her daughter’s arrival from college but immediately Dee informs her that she has changed her name to Wang’ero; she feels so hurt and starts feeling the difference in her daughter. Dee takes pictures of the Mama and Maggie including the house to show a preserve of the family beliefs and roots. She thinks she is more caring to the family items than Mama and Maggie to because they use them every day. (Bloom 164)Tuten also narrates the surprise Maggie meets at the sight of a barber, Hakim, attempts hugging Dee as they can’t remember if Dee had any associates. Noise is heard from the bedroom after super, notably from Dee who was trying to attract the attention of the other characters to show off to them the quits as opposed to using them. This prompted Mama to disown her taking the quits from her and giving them to Maggie to use when she marries. Tuten ends her story by exploring the rift between Mama and Dee when mama fully disowns her and even stops referring to her by her name. Mama feels a sigh of relief after de drives away as she thought of Dee as a burden to her. In my opinion, Susan Farrell’s interpretation of the characters in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is more accurate. Being the source of information for all that is going on her home and between her daughters; Mama had an opportunity to talk about the two daughters in a manner that best pleased her and suited what she wanted to communicate. She might have had informed opinions about Dee thus using ill adjectives to make her appear in the wrong. More often than not different narrators have always tried as much as possible to ensure their intended message reach the audience rather than conveying the true records of the occurrences. This they achieve through exaggerating the mistakes of the characters they would wish to downplay and overpraise the characters of their interest. When Dee comes home, she takes photographs of Maggie and mama and ensuring that every time she takes any pictures she included the house. This was in contrary to mama’s argument that Dee had such much hatred for the house she always felt like she wanted to tear it down. If only she truly hated the house, she wouldnt have bothered having its pictures. While taking the pictures, she was preserving the heritage of their family. This confirms that describing Dee as having hatred for her sister was too a mere perception of the narrator. Conclusion Most of the historical records that were accessed from the narrators themselves are very much biased and never place the narrator on the wrong thus Mama was not an exception for this case but rather just had to abide. She might have hated Dee from childhood and kept on the spirits with the hatred intensifying on every move that Dee took. If only Mama could be open minded and thought of Dee as her daughter as well who deserved the same treatment as Maggie then she would have made attempts to rebuke her in circumstances she felt she was out of order. References Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold. Alice Walker, New Edition. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009. Burkhardt, Sylvi. The Function of Tradition in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and "Yellow Woman" by Leslie Marmon Silko. Redwood: GRIN Verlag, 2005. Kirchmayer, Katharina. Sites of Resistance in Alice Walker and Leslie Silko. Saskatchewan: GRIN Verlag, 2010. Lewis, Natalie. The Concept of Heritage in Alice Walker ́s Everyday Use. Mesa: GRIN Verlag, 2002. Read More