What is the main point of Everyday Use?

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” highlights the importance of cultural heritage and family history through strong uses of symbolism. Walker tells the story of an unappreciative, materialistic daughter’s visit to her mother and sister’s home.  She arrives only to request to take family pieces for decoration in her new home and life.  Through symbolism, Walker creates a world full of familiar characters in order to evoke a sense of realism in the reader’s own life and behavior.  The depicted family member’s actions are disrespectful and negative, highlighting how one should never treat their family, along with the significance of embracing your own culture in order to continue to be a part of your family’s heritage.

Walker’s use of symbolism is evident at first with her characters.  Dee is a symbol of success, accompanied by her lack of remembrance and care for her ancestral history.  Maggie, her sister, is a symbol of respect and passion for the past.  Mama tells the story of her daughter Dee’s arrival.  Told from first person narrative, Mama’s point of view offers an insight into the mother figure who appreciates her heritage while also representing a symbol of living history. When Dee wraps a dasher she wants, Mama observes, “It was beautiful light yellow wood, from a tree that grew in the yard where Big Dee and Stash had lived” (Paragraph 54). Her connection to the past opens the reader’s eyes to Dee’s lack of it.  When Dee arrives, few words are exchanged before it is said she no longer wants to be called Dee.  Instead, she wants to be referred to as Wangero. Seemingly to represent her African roots, Dee changes her name to portray a foreign culture not directly linked to her family.  Dee’s denial of a family name is the start of her continued ignorance of her family’s past.  She does not care to learn about her real heritage, only African culture as a whole, and disrespects her mother and sister only furthering herself from the culture she should actually be trying to embrace. 

Besides from the characters, Walker’s use of symbolism is seen through the old quilts in Mama’s trunk.  When Mama offers Dee different quilts, Dee explains she wants the old quilts because of the hand stitching and the pieces of dresses stitched in that Grandma used to wear. 

Mama’s internal focalization on the quilts detail is not mirrored in Dee.  The quilts were “pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee,” and contain patterns like “Lone Star” (55).  Dee does not know the extensive history and significance of them.  Repeatedly, Dee refers to them only as “these quilts,” without going into detail or explaining their historical significance to her or her family.  She sees them as beautiful things, and nothing beyond that.  A materialistic Dee sees the quilts as “priceless” (68) objects she can hang on her wall.  Transfixed on her successful image and confidence, Dee desires things that make her seem connected to herself, even if that connection is falsified.  Walker uses Dee’s symbol of success and pride to illustrate how that confidence can grow into a disregard for one’s own culture, past and family.  Like her new name, she believes the quilts connect her to her heritage, when actually she knows nothing about either.  The past is no longer and we can only see it through the things and people around us that aid in reminding.  Wherever one may go in life, it is essential to look back, whether it be to parents, memories, heirlooms, or cultural history.

Sibling rivalry is introduced when Mama tells Dee she promised the quilts to Maggie.  Dee always gets what she wants, and insults her sister by saying Maggie could never appreciate the quilts and would probably put them to “everyday use” (66), which is something Mama in fact does want.  Maggie cared to learn how to quilt, while Dee never did.  Dee does not know any information about the quilts further than their physical appearance, just like she lacks understanding and knowledge about her sister, mother, history, and culture altogether.  The physical appearance of her culture is African, but her and her family have no significant connections beyond that.  Instead, her family places significance on things and traditions like quilts and quilting, something Dee does not care to understand.  Choosing to change her name to Wangero, an African name, Dee think she is honoring her culture, but is actually failing to look beyond the appearance of culture.  In the final moments of Dee’s visit and her altercation with her family, Mama internally insults her, referring to her as “Miss Wangero” (76) when she had thought of her as “Dee (Wangero)” throughout the story.  The first person narrative allows the reader to see the finalization behind how Mama now views Dee: an alone, disconnected family member, failing to live or see passed appearance, and utterly without true historical roots.  By not caring to learn or care and disrespecting her family, Mama views Wangero as no longer part of the family.

Walker uses familiar characters in “Everyday Use.” The neglected sister, the successful and condescending daughter, and the mother trying to connect with her opposing daughters all aid in Walker’s message.  Her portrayal of a disconnected family creates a sense of importance in physical objects.  The quilts bring together the family in a battle of self identity and history.  Maggie was promised the right to them, Dee expects to be given them, and Mama is stuck in the middle of her children and her ancestors.  Mama realizes Dee does not see herself as part of the family, even if Dee herself thinks she is the alpha.  Dee’s, or Wangero’s, disregard and lack of respect for her heritage and culture ends with her final disconnection from the quilts, and her family as a whole.  Walker’s focus on past objects as part of the present teaches the reader the importance of small traditions and heirlooms within a family, and the attention and focus those things should have in the lives of everyone involved, for years to come.