Feminist_Perspective_of_Everyday_Use

A Feminist View of the “Everyday Use” “Everyday Use” is one of black women writer, Alice Walker’s most popular short stories. The story opens in the narrative point of view, and its language is trendy, witty and colorful. The plot is not too complicated and revolves around a conflict over two quilts within a family of black females; Mama, the black mother of Dee, the well-educated first daughter and the cowardly little daughter, Maggie. The story’s setting takes place in 1960’s during the African-American Civil Rights Movement while analyzing the worlds of three black women spirit worlds and symbols of significance in terms of Feminine Consciousness to project the literature topic of the novel. Alice Walker explores the black women’s social relationship, living state and spiritual quest. In this novel, the author interprets three black women, the mother and two daughters. The mother, who is strong, capable, hardworking, and undereducated, poor but optimistic, is a typical black woman and represents the common American black people. As the novel describes, the black mother of two girls is “a large, big-bone woman with rough, man-working hands” (Walker, 2011, Page 279) “in the winter she wears ‘flannel night owns to bed and overalls during hot in zero weather” (Walker, 2011, Page 279). She can “kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (Walker, 2011, Page 279). Using figurative and vivid description of Mama identifies that she is a person lacking unusual abilities but the abilities she has have been inherited to bring up two daughters solely by herself. She values family relationships and the preservation of black culture and life. Mama has passed this cultural heritage to at least one of her daughters, and the other not so much. Alice Walker, wants to carry forward the black people’s traditional culture, through this black mother, and make it exist for forever. Mama’s two daughters are very opposite. Maggie, the second child, is portrayed as shy, ugly and clumsy. The mother gives a description of Maggie stating “have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him' This is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin to chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground” (Walker, 2011, Page 279). Maggie was one who wouldn’t go far from her mother, she learned everything from her mother the way her mother did. She knows the origin of her family and everything in it, and she knows about quilts, and how to make them. Maggie represents the release of blacks’ traditional culture. She is considered the ignored and forgotten inheritor. Unlike her sister, Dee, Maggie can identify with using her heritage and everyday items to use. Dee is a rebel; the type of girl who overturns black women’s traditional culture, especially in how black women are treated within their traditional attire cultures. The author very descriptively draws an image of how Dee returned home after leaving: “A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of sun. I feel whole face warming from heat waves it throws out.” (Walker, 2011, Page 280). If I had to guess I would say that Dee is a typical black woman that has an appreciation for white women, and white women’s cultures. She claimed her independence away from black culture and was educated. She changed her looks and her name, but her selfishness remained. Dee would rather heritage be displayed as decoration, rather than using the items that were passed down from ancestors has once used. When Dee returned home for a visit, while sitting at the table, “Wangero says that’s it I knew there was something I wanted to ask you if I could have and jumps up from the table and went over tin the corner where the churn stood, the milk in it clabber by now. This churn is what I need, she said” (Walker, 2011, Page 281). She wanted to display the churn and dasher as artwork in her home. I can use the churn top as a center piece for the alcove table, and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher” (Walker, 2011, Page 281 ) Very much unlike Maggie, who realizes the uses of the items. In “Everyday Use” we realize that the all three female characters have the noticeable social features, reflecting black cultures and lifestyles. Through these three black women the author diverts the black women’s creativity, spiritual pursuits while praising the sense of duty of maintaining the black women’s culture. The author conveys that cultural heritage is not distinguished by a change of a name, or hairstyle. In fact, she emphasizes on the inner inevitability in cultural heritage, and refutes the shallow understanding to it; behind the cultural heritage, the author exposes the black women’s means of self-awareness or realization. REFERENCES Walker, A. (2011). Everyday Use. In D.L. Pike and A.M. Acosta’s (Eds.) Literature: A world of writing stories, poems, plays and essays [Vital Source digital Version] (pp. 278-283). Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.