Everyday Use PDF

Everyday Use Alice Walker Author Biography Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. The youngest daughter of sharecroppers, she grew up poor, with her mother working as a maid to help support the family's eight children.  At 8 years old, Walker was shot...

Everyday Use Alice Walker Author Biography Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. The youngest daughter of sharecroppers, she grew up poor, with her mother working as a maid to help support the family's eight children.  At 8 years old, Walker was shot in the right eye with a BB pellet while playing with two of her brothers. Whitish scar tissue formed in her damaged eye, and she became self-conscious of this visible mark. After the incident, Walker largely withdrew from the world around her. "For a long time, I thought I was very ugly and disfigured," she told John O'Brien in an interview that was published in Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives, Past and Present (1993). "This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults and slights that were not intended." She found solace in reading and writing poetry.  Living in the racially divided South, Walker showcased a bright mind at her segregated schools, graduating from high school as class valedictorian.  With the help of a scholarship, Walker was able to attend Spelman College in Atlanta. She later switched to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. While at Sarah Lawrence, Walker visited Africa as part of a study-abroad program. She graduated in 1965—the same year that she published her first short story.  After college, Walker worked as a social worker, teacher and lecturer. She became active in the Civil Rights Movement, fighting for equality for all African Americans.  Along with her Pulitzer and National Book Award, Walker has been honored with the O. Henry Award and the Mahmoud Darwish Literary Prize for Fiction. Additionally, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2006 and received the LennonOno Peace Award in 2010. Setting and Background Everyday Use was first published in 1973 as part of the short story collection In Love and Trouble:  Stories of Black Women. These stories span multi- generational periods and interconnect Black women from the American South, New York City and Uganda. Told in first person by Mama, Everyday Use is set in the late 1960’s, a time when Black America was undergoing a great transformation. Through the Civil Rights movement, black Americans began ushering in a new era for themselves. The old life of the rural black farmer immersed in the aura of sharecropping and specter of slavery is quickly being rendered obsolete. Conflict  The conflict in the story is centered around the clash between the two worlds, which Walker’s character Dee straddles. Dee increasingly rebukes her own heritage for the ideas and rhetoric of the new Black Pride movement. Walker weaves themes of African cultural nationalism with a narrative steeped in family conflict. On another level Alice Walker provides a unique perspective on the struggle of the African-American woman to find both identity and voice from the shadows of the past, as well as a rapidly changing future. Everyday Use continues to be included in definitive anthologies of American Literature. S TORY OVERVIEW Main characters: Mother: narrator; hard-working, loving but frustrated by her daughters Maggie: younger daughter, poorly educated & shy Dee: oldest daughter, smart & sophisticated and was sent to school in Augusta Setting: 1960s Southern United States: Civil Rights, Black Pride Rural Georgia: racially divided, poor, high illiteracy, major discrimination Main Conflict: Dee is rejecting parts of her heritage that she feels are too “white” or too “poor”, yet she wants to take two heirloom quilts promised to her sister. She wants to display them in her home, and feels Maggie does not recognize their true value. Dee’s mother refuses to give her the quilts.  The internal conflict is Maggie's struggle to find her own self-worth and Mama's decision between her two daughters. The external conflict is the conflict between Mama and Dee. There is also an underlying conflict between Dee and Maggie for their mother's love and approval. Summary of the Plot The story is told from the perspective of Mama, a "big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands". As the story begins, she hesitantly awaits the return of her eldest  daughter Dee. Mama stands near her withdrawn and physically scarred younger daughter Maggie. As they await Dee's return, the reader is given details about Mama's life and her near estrangement with Dee. We learn that Dee always wanted more than her family history or Mama could offer her. While Dee is intelligent and driven, we get the clear sense that her accomplishments have come at the expense of her mother and little sister.  Dee finally shows up with a young man named Hakim-a-barber, whom Mama refers to as "Asalamalakim". Dee insists on being called by her new name, “Wangero”. Both Dee and her  boyfriend are more intent on acquiring artifacts than actually connecting with Mama and Maggie. They rifle through Mama’s possessions in search of “authentic” pieces of old rural black life, a life that Dee has long ago divorced herself from. Dee makes a dozen or so patronizing insults, veiled as casual “chit-chat”, directed at Mama and Maggie.  She insists on acquiring old quilts that are meant for Maggie. After enduring an emotional bludgeoning by her daughter, mama tells "Wangero" to take two other quilts not intended for Maggie and leave. Dee tells Maggie to make something of herself and ironically tells Mama that she doesn't understand her own heritage. Then both Dee and Hakim-a- barber climb into their car and disappear in a cloud of dust as quickly as they had arrived.