Everyday Use by Alice Walker Analysis - Essay Example

A narration of an inner conflict, conflicts within a person, conflict of a mother with her daughters, inner conflict of the African-Americans struggling to find their identity, Everyday Use voices the feelings of the people in early 70s. Alice Walker, through the conflicts of the mother and her two daughters portrays the feelings of the Blacks. One part of the mother, Dee (one part of the Blacks) wants to forget the roots while the other part, Maggie (the other part of the Blacks) bears the burns and lives the life of pittance. Walker challenges the black people to accept, acknowledge, and respect their American heritage. Through acceptance, they should learn to evolve themselves. The Blacks wanted to discover their African roots and shun the American heritage. This conflict tore them apart. Dee had been fortunate enough to receive education at Augusta and she felt superior to her mother and sister. She gives up her roots and adopts the African culture. Maggie had been the oppressed one and represents the underclass that has been left behind by the Wangero’s (Dee) who have risen above and achieved independence. Maggie’s feelings are voiced through DuBois in his reflections when he mentions, ‘why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in my own house’ (564). In pursuit of her identity, Dee changes her name and wishes that her mother now used the new name to address her. Dee totally severed her roots when she announced as Wangero that Dee was dead, as ‘I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me’. Such was her hatred towards her past. She chooses to be called by the new name, as she wants no connection with her past. At the same time, she wants to carry the churn lid and the dasher. This is not because she values her past or the ancestors; she proposes to use all of them as heritage but as a negative index to her status. She also wants to carry the quilts with her to hang it on the walls. This is again a conflict, the double consciousness – the Blacks felt lost. It was a strife to attain the self – conscious manhood, according to DuBois (565). Wangero’s character shows weakness as she attempts to restore a sense of identity, which was impaired by the wrongs on the Black people. DuBois confirms this when he highlights that ‘the doubtful striving has often made his very strength to lose effectiveness, to seem like absence of power, like weakness’ (565). In the process, she fails to appreciate how the African-Americans (through her mama’s character) have converted the wrongs into moral capital. On the contrary, she is ashamed of her mother and sister that they have decided to carry on as they are. Walker through the character of mother acknowledges the hardships that the Blacks had to face to survive in a hostile environment. Through the character of Dee, she also demonstrates the pride of the misguided Blacks. Through Maggie’s burn scars, Walker describes the burns left in the hearts of the Blacks, which has left them crippled for life. Through the symbol of quilts, Alice Walker argues that an African-American is both African and American. To deny the American heritage amounts to disrespect to one’s ancestors. Identity cannot be established if one wants to shake one’s roots. DuBois agrees that ‘to merge the double self into a truer and better self, neither of the older selves should be lost, (565). The quilts hold a special meaning to the mother. When she touches them, she is actually connected to her roots; she can feel the people who had made them. It shows a bond between women over several generations. Each character has double consciousness, referred by DuBois, in The Souls of our Striving, which haunts a person and makes it difficult for him to find his identity. Mama’s reflections, ‘In real life I am large, big-boned woman with rough man-working hands’ (518) supports DuBois idea of double consciousness. This description of herself along with the reference to her second grade education shows that she had no regrets about her lack of education and took pride in her heritage. Despite this, she feels lost which shows her double consciousness. The conflict over the quilt is the conflict that the African-Americans have been nurturing for years. It was made of patches, which shows how their life was made up of patches. One part of them (Maggie) understands the value of heritage while the other part (Dee) does not. When mama had offered the quilts to Dee when she was going away to college Dee has found them old fashioned but today she wants them. Mama now wants to give them to Maggie because she realizes that they rightfully belong to Maggie as she has lived with the burns that were inflicted on them. Dee’s adamancy in wanting to take the quilts suggests the internal turmoil. She wants the quilt but not the name. Walker suggests that they have to take ownership of the entire heritage including the painful and unpleasant parts. If they do not the conflict would continue endlessly. As DuBois states, ‘there is within and without the sound of conflict, the burning of body and rending of soul: inspiration strives with doubt, and faith with vain questionings’ (567). He further says, ‘all these ideals must be melted and welded into one’ (567). According to Walker, the mother (welded into one) represents the majority of the blacks who have to learn to reconcile their past history with the civil rights reforms. This can bring about a transformation in the true sense amongst the African-Americans who feel lost now. Read More