Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

African-American Heritage in Everyday Use

 

            Alice Walker is a child of sharecroppers who raised cotton in the rural South. Walker suffers from a blinding injury to her right eye that causes her to become shy and withdrawn, much like the character of Maggie in this story. Alice Walker's, "Everyday Use," explores an African-American family exploring their heritage. Mama, Dee, and Maggie each have their own views on how they perceive and appreciate their heritage. However, bonds are broken, and tensions raise over the symbolic quilt, holding a lifelong of history and heritage. "Everyday Use," is set in the late 1960's and early 1970's down South in the narrator's yard. The house in which Mama and Maggie live suggests a rural landscape area: "It is three rooms except the roof is tin. There are no real windows just some holes cut in the sides, like the portholes in a ship," (Walker 299). During this time period, many African-Americans are struggling to find their identities and cultural roots. Movements such as Black Power emerge in addition to groups such as the Black Panthers. Realization and appreciation of ethnic values abound, causing people to become Afro-centric, and holidays such as Kwanza began to be celebrated. Walker does this to help the reader to get a better understanding and image of the story. .
             "Because Walker came from a background of poverty and social restriction," it is fitting that she writes, "Everyday Use," in first person point of view, (Christian 455). "Everyday Use," speaks from Mama's perspective which helps reveal how she feels about herself, as well as her two daughters Dee and Maggie. It gives a sense of realism and allows readers to be more cognizant of what's going on and in some way may relate. The narrator, Mama, "a large big boned woman with rough, man working hands, who wears, "flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day," whose, "fat keeps her hot in zero weather," is strong and uneducated and does anything to make her daughters Dee and Maggie happy (Walker 298).


Essays Related to African-American Heritage in Everyday Use