For a story written in first person, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” brings point of view to new heights. The way the story is written let readers in on more than just one perception. The story is centered on an African-American family in the south set back in the 60’s. A mother tells her story about how she and her two girls grow up in her home and how one of them, after being away for a while, comes back to show them how much she has changed. However, the reunion does not end on good terms.
The style of this story is unique in its own right. The style brings more depth to the speaker’s point of view. It is as if the author makes the main character emulate a real person’s dialect. Even the diction is almost classifiable. “In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands…My fat keeps me hot in zero weather (Walker 65). A reader can clearly picture what kind of person is speaking. The speaker is the mother of the two children. She speaks about what she went through raising her children. She focuses not on the hardships of a black woman in the south but on what she goes through as a black mother in the south. Later on she shifts her focus to her oldest daughter, Dee. She pays close attention to her two daughters: “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe” (Walker 65). It is clear to her that they are two different people. Dee, the older sister, is beautiful and smart. She is popular and is full of potential. Maggie, the younger sister, is thin and not as pretty as her older sister. She has burn scars on her body. Their mother pretty much knows exactly what type of women they will grow up to be based off of their demeanor.
Later in the story the focus of the mother shifts to Dee returning home after a while of being away in the city. She does not come back alone. The way the author had the speaker explain the reunion can leave the reader awkward or maybe even tense. Dee arrived and greeted her family in Swahili with her friend following up the greeting with “Asalamalakim, my mother and sister!” (Walker 67) Dee is practically all over the place; taking pictures, announcing her new name, Wangero, giving a history point and lesson, and introducing her new friend. It is confusing for her mother and her sister. Things tone down as they all go inside to eat some comfort food but almost out of no where things pick up again. Dee starts pointing out things that would look nice her home. The heirlooms or ‘artifacts’ drives this whole story into major controversy. Arguments arise as soon as the mother tells Dee that the quilt that she loves, adores, and have new found passion for, is going to Maggie when she gets married. Dee got furious and said, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts…She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (Walker 69).
As stated previously, this story stretches point of view to another level. The characters in this story are so full of personality that when these characters are placed in this situation a reader will almost subconsciously pick a side. That is what makes this story so controversial.
One could say that Dee was wrong for acting that way and that artifacts are not what makes someone’s heritage rich. It is, in fact, makes it more evident. Dee wants to hang the quilt up some where and showcase it. She feels that it would be put to waste if Maggie used it to sleep in. On the other hand, some may side with Dee and say the mother is wrong to give the quilt to Maggie. It would be put to better use if left in the hands of Dee. The quilt is proof of a dying art and justifies the humble and wholesome greatness of African-America. There is nothing wrong with pride in a culture. The point of view of both sides holds some equal and strong truths. That is why this story has more depth to it and in turn making the story so controversial.
The point of view of the mother throughout the whole story may seem as though Dee is too different and too distant. She never liked where she lived. She wants the best, she wants nice things, and she wants whatever beyond the south. The fact that she wants the quilt for a ‘greater’ purpose than just using it probably did not surprise her. Professor Sam Whitsitt probably put it best when he stated, “…Dee refuses to see herself as part of that whole…One could say that what Dee sees in these parts of a whole is that they, like her, are not, nor have they ever been, recognized for what they are worth” (Whitsitt 450). He even goes on to say that, “When Dee claims that her sister Maggie “can’t appreciate these quilts (33), she is also claiming that Maggie cannot appreciate her; she is talking about herself and the inability of those at home to appreciate the daughter who, as apart of that whole, went away, changed, returned, and cannot find / does not want to find a reflection of herself in that whole” (Whitsitt 450). In other words what Dee thought would show others where she came from (the quilt) is not at all the source of her heritage. It is her home, her family. The quilt was nothing more than an heirloom.
The point of view of Dee was that the quilt was the epitome of heritage. It was what was necessary to show others where she came from. Her being different does not surprise her to see that her family could not understand. Now that she is caught up in “fighting the power” she has to cherish what is left of what is part of her culture. What Dee wanted is proof of her heritage. What Dee fails to realize is that heritage is a birthright. It is an inheritance that can be passed on from and to another generation for generations to come. As long as that family continues to grow than that heritage stays alive. Dee is her heritage because she belongs to her family.
Enclosing, Dee and her mother may not see eye to eye on the quilt situation and as long as that story doesn’t change, neither will the readers. Walker does an extraordinary job by bringing the reader so far into the story that one may be compelled to pick a side because of the perception of each character. Because to point of views of the characters in this story are so strong the theme can be more than just one thing and that is because of the perceptions. It is up to the reader to decide which theme is the right one but that will solely be dependent on the beliefs of the reader and the side the reader picks.
