The Thematic Character of Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Often times after a person reads a piece of literature, he or she ordain form opinions more or less the motivations of the characters, the face-to-face effects of the setting, the overall subject field or underlying message being conveyed, and the former(a) elements that helped to shape the whole account statement. After contemplating about their particular beliefs about a work, individuals will find their ideas to be different from others beca determination distributively of them perceives details of the bilgewater in a varying manner. For this reason, it was non surprising that m whatsoever of my classmates and I had conflicting opinions about the main themes present in Alice Walkers Everyday Use (For Your Grandmama).Numerous members of the class strongly felt that the storys central theme lied in the differing values of all(prenominal) the characters. They employ textual evidence to prove that Dees views on chartered issues were so unlike those of her get down and Mag gies that they actually created a hindrance between Dee and her family. Others felt that the setting and the type/amount of gentility influenced the motives of each of the characters. These pile referred to the fact that Dee had the opportunity to obtain a proper education and that florists chrysanthemum and Maggie did not.The hobnailed setting operated as a means to compound their views because it showed that most battalion had to work instead of receiving an education. In comparison with these viewpoints mentioned, I took a much different approach to interpreting the principal theme of this story. I truly believed that Everyday Use was about the ways in which Dees personality affected herself and her family. Using this generalized notion, I positive a more precise theme for this work. Each of us is raise within a stopping point, a set of traditions handed down by those before us.As individuals, we view and experience common heritage in subtly differing ways. Within many smaller communities and families, deeply felt traditions serve to enrich this common heritage. Alice Walkers Everyday Use explores how, in her eagerness to take over an ancient heritage, Dee denies herself the substantive personal experience of familial traditions in much(prenominal) incidents as the justification of her arrive at change, her comments during the repast with the family, and her requesting Mama for the quilts.Upon arriving at her arrives new house for the first time, Dee surprises her arrive and Maggie with her appearance and her spare name change. Dee quickly informs her mother that she has do her new name Wangero to suppose her African heritage. She no longer will be named after the people who oppress her. This reference can be attributed to Dees possible experiences as a civil rights activist. Among the black community many people rattlingise African names to reflect their pre-slavery heritage. While this can be a source of strength and affirmation for so me, it may represent a rejection of ones past, as it apparently does for Dee.Even her mothers response that she was named Dee after her aunt, who was named for the aunts mother, though I probably could pay back carried it back beyond the Civil contend through the branches, does not have any true effect on her perception of her shedn name (32). Dee still feels that being called Wangero will give her cultural fulfillment, whereas her real name wet-nurses her back from attaining this. She fails to recognize that her mothers words actually show how the family is proud to pass the name Dee along generations to help preserve their own traditions.Dee does not feel the pride that is associated with her real name because she possesses a certain prejudice against her family that will not kick her to embrace her own private heritage. This prejudice is rooted in her beliefs that her mother and Maggie are incapable of relating her views due to their lack of education and their unwillingness to accept new ideas. Judging from Dees opinions about her name, readers can clearly actualize that she has misunderstandings about her living heritage that prevent her from feeling the joy of carrying on a family name.Against Dees claim to her African roots is the thread of tradition in her own family. Not only has Dee achieved an education denied her mother, she has rejected her given name, and she sees self-created symbolization in the food and objects present at the meal. Dee goes on through the chitlings and corn bread, talks a blue streak over the sweet potatoes, and thoroughly delights herself with everything (45). Dee finds this meal to be a sort of novelty that she can only esteem properly because she is now in the proper surroundings to do so.Her normally more sophisticated diet leaves her room to relish such a simple meal and its reflection of her African roots, not her rural family culture. She admits to Mama to not appreciating as a child the benches on which they a re sitting, do by her father. Dee can feel the rump prints (46). Yet, when next Dee exclaims to her mother that she wants the butter boil which was whittled out of a tree by her uncle, and that she will use it as a centerpiece for one of her tables, readers suspect her clench for the benches and the churn is really as mere artifacts.Dee then turns her attention to the dasher used with the churn. She assures everyone that she will think of something artistic to do with the dasher (53). When the shy Maggie informs them her uncle Henry made the dash, and that they used to call him Stash, Dee exclaims, Maggies brain is like an elephants, implying that Maggies knowledge is feral, that she cant help but hold on to facts which are irrelevant (53). Real, human details, such as the name of the man who made the dasher, are not relevant to Dee.She feels the workmanship in the dasher represents good quality art that should be displayed accordingly to mirror her appreciation of her roots. Dee sees the object as a thing of beauty, but not as a part of her very personal culture, a utility reflecting the driving and determination of those who once used it. In turn, she is alienating herself from her personal denomination of familys past through her superficial recognition of the dashers value. Dees family knows that hesitation is no part of Dees nature, and that she is determined to achieve what she desires (6).In the bedroom, rifle through her mothers keepsakes, Dee finds her grandmas quilts, and tries to lay claim to them. The quilts are made of old dresses and cloths, some handed down from several prior generations. When Dee asks her mother if she can have them, we sense a turning point is reached. Since Dee already rejected them once before, Mama responds to Dees request by stating that the quilts have been promised to Maggie.Dee argues that her mother and Maggie cannot properly appreciate the quilts, that the quilts should be displayed. Maggie would probably be re flexive enough to put them to everyday use (66). Dees claim to the quilts and her plans to use them as decorations show her outward perception of family heirlooms to be mere objects of display, not prize items that help people remember their loved ones and make them appreciate the ponderous work put into them. Dees adopted values cloud her sagaciousness and thoughts, making her naive to the integrity and genuine nature of her culture.Her mothers refusal to grant this one favor does not even create any sense of misgivings on her part. Her arrogance and her adherence to her misguided beliefs make her ineffectual to see the true worth of the quilts and their importance to her familys traditions. Dees notions about the quilts thwart her from experiencing the happiness associated with displaying ones own familial culture to the rest of the world. Our heritage threads through history past the people who contributed to it, to affect us on a personal level.To be fully appreciated and cl aimed, it must reside in the heart. Dee understands the heritage of people she doesnt know. In this way, her adopted heritage can be understood intellectually, but it is not felt, not personal, and not truly her own. Her rejection of her familys culture in the rural society will not allow to ever have feelings of personal pride about her true roots. In turn, Dee can never really find happiness in most aspects concerning her immediate family, making it fleshy for her to have a loving relationship with any of them.