Alice Walker - Everyday use

Alice Walker was born on February 9^th, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia and was the youngest of eight children in a economically poor family. She is an African American author and poet with a theme often about issues of race and gender. The most famous book is the novel “The color purple”. She even won the “Pulitzer prize for fiction”. When Ms. Walker was four years old she was enrolled in the first grade, a year ahead of schedule. After high school she attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York City and graduated in 1965.

When growing up Ms. Walker often used to write, but very privately. In 1952 Alice was accidently injured in her eye when a shot from a BB gun was fired by one of her brothers. Without the availability of taking her immediately to a doctor for treatment the family waited a week to receive the news that she turned out to be permanently blind in the wounded eye. This disability made Mrs. Walker feel like an outcast and became very shy. This made her focus more on reading and writing poetry. 

In 1965 Ms. Walker married a Jewish civil rights lawyer  named Melvyn Roseman Leventhal. This made them the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi. Together they have one daughter.

The similarities I find between Mrs. Walkers everyday life and the story “Everyday use” is mainly that their life seem to be a little bit of a struggle. Mrs. Walker grew up in a economically pour family with some struggle. Even though the story does not imply that they are poor, I feel that there is struggle in their everyday life. I also see the similarities when it concerns education. In real life Mrs. Walker was very close to not having an education because of her skin color and the way people used to think back in the days. She makes it very clear that “Mama”  in the story does not have the education she wanted though she gave it to her daughters. This seems to be a reflection of how her family situation was. Mrs. Walkers own mother might not have had any education but struggled so that Alice and her siblings did. Education seems to be an important factor in her life and in her stories.

1.      I think the term everyday use refers to the quilts that Dee’s and Maggie’s grandmother made a long time ago. It can also refer to the difference in heritage opinions in all three characters of the story. They have different views on how to keep a heritage which makes them think differently when it comes to everyday stuff. I think Mrs. Walker chose this title to reflect on the everyday simple stuff that can mean a lot to some people. 

2.      Dee defines heritage as someone you have to be careful of and not touch or use. It should be there every day to remind you. Maggie is more relaxed and she does not need the actually physical thing there to remind her about her heritage, she will remember without it. Mama seems very worried about her heritage and she is very concerned that it will not be forgotten. She needs to be reassured that it will be remembered.

3.      I find it very ironic that Dee changes her name to Wangero even though she is very keen on keeping her heritage alive. She was named after several people in her family and should be proud of her name. Throughout the story she implies that Maggie would not be able to keep the heritage alive like she would, but even though this she changed the one thing that would be able to keep their heritage alive for very long time. 

4.      The story would change very much if Mama was not the narrator. Maggie would have had a very relaxed story and tried to focus more on the spiritual way of keeping heritage alive. Remembering it by stories and memories. Dee’s story would have been a more alive and eventful story. The focus of the story would have been directed to the things that keeps the heritage alive and the importance behind it.

5.      The Quilts is a big significance in the story’s meaning. They represent their heritage and what they feel like they need to remember. They all have different opinions of heritage but they all feel concerned about the quilts and remembering their heritage and history. The Orange Dress that Dee shows up wearing in the beginning of the story is to me something to notice. The significance about the dress is that at first glance it stands out so much and it reflects Dee’s personality. It makes the reader really feel the difference between Dee and Maggie. This was an important part for me as a reader to understand and realize their differences. The sunglasses that Dee is wearing in the end of the story seem important in my point of view. It’s a very good way of once again reflecting on Dee’s personality. She often seems very blunt and almost oblivious. It is almost like she is always wearing sunglasses because she lives in her little world/bubble where everything is her way. 

                                                                            Quilts