Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

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As the short story “Everyday Uses” by Alice Walker takes place, it is a turbulent time as African-Americans struggle to identify themselves socially, culturally, and individually in American Society. It is the late 1960’s or early 1970’s in the Deep South and many African-Americans are recognizing their contributions in American history and embracing their African heritage and culture. In doing so, many African-Americans are distancing themselves from their history of slavery, oppression, and inequality as they try to reconnect with their African roots. Dee’s character is one of these African-Americans struggling to find her authentic personal identity. Dee’s character represents a new black generation, black pride, and the Black…show more content…
The text reads on page 169, paragraph 6, “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 the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out. Earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arm up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits. The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it. I hear Maggie go “Uhnnh” again. It is her sister’s hair. It stands straight up like the wool of a sheep. It is black as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards disappearing behind her ears.” It is with this alien costume that Dee shows her mother and sister she is only a visitor in their world. She does not belong…show more content…
When Dee first goes away to college, she refuses her mother’s offer of a quilt. The text reads on page 173, 1-2, “I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style.” However, now with her new found African heritage Dee only sees her family heirlooms as trophies from a past she no longer belongs to, something to put on display. Dee is correct though, the heirlooms, especially the quilts, are priceless. The text reads on page 173, paragraph 1, “But they’re priceless!” she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!” However, Dee is blind to exactly how priceless the quilts really are. The quilts are not only priceless because of their monetary and artistic value, but more importantly, they are priceless because of the love and work that went into their creation. The quilts are lovingly made from pieces of every day clothing of their relatives. The skills to make the benches, butter churn, and the quilts pass down through family generations. To touch these items, physically and emotionally, is to touch relatives who have passed on. This is their true value. The text reads on page 173. Paragraph 1, “She can always make more,” I said. Maggie knows how to quilt.” Being unable to understand the true value of
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