An Analysis of Intrinsic Elements in Alice

Walker’s “Everyday Use “

By:
Peni Ratnawati / PBI 5F/08321 217
Rahmadhita A./ PBI 5F/08321 228
Retno Christanti/ PBI 5F/ 08321
Yanda Christina/ PBI 5F/ 08321 308

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH TEACHING

FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS EDUCATION
IKIP PGRI MADIUN
2010
An Analysis of Intrinsic Elements in Alice Walker’s
“Everyday Use “

Everyday Use is a widely studied short story written by Alice Walker. It was first published
in 1973 as part of Walker's short story collection, In Love and Trouble. The story actually
represents her response to the concept of the Black people heritage in the late of 60’s. According to
Helga (1997), the story was written during the heyday of the Black Power movement, when
African-Americans were trying to gain racial equality and called for self-determination and racial
dignity. Many blacks wanted to rediscover their African roots, and were ready to reject and deny
their American heritage, which was filled with stories of pain and injustice. In Walker’s Everyday
Use argues that an African-American is both African and American, and to deny the American
side of one’s heritage is disrespectful of one’s ancestors and consequently, harmful to one’s self.

Summary

An African-American mother, "Mama Johnson," had experienced difficulties all her life during her
upbringing. While her daughter (Dee) who had received a good education in Augusta in Georgia
and migrated to work in an urban environment. Mama has one other daughter, Maggie, whom she
conciders to be less fortunate. Maggie used to become victim to a house fire causing her to be
limpy and the scars still remain on her face. Mama has always been saying that her child Maggie is
the most generous of all, while Dee has always been the bold and convident one. The story begins
when Maggie and Mama have already made the house a day earlier in order to welcome Dee. Dee
has always wanted nicer thing. Dee is told to be a bold and beautiful girl with fair skin, who
apparently loves her sister, but Meggi’s less beauty,dark color and less intellectual have caused
Dee to underestimate her. Both the sisters seem complete opposite of each other. One is higly
ambitious and bold while the other is equaly unmotivated. Maggie’s burn have caused her the
extrime troubles that she is often found corners hiding away from the world. Now as soon as Dee
arrives, Maggie and Mama are amazed to see the charm and glory which Dee has arrived. Dee tells
them that she has changed her name now to “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”. Dee tries to recollect
the family’s valuable crafts such as quilts and a curn as a memory of heritage from her family and
to keep it as a decor in her home, she also laughs at Maggie for putting such valuable for everyday
use. Both Mama's and Maggie get disturbed and angered by Dee's insulting behavior. Mama at one
satge becomes outrage and throws the quilts into Maggie's lap, declaring that she wont let dee
takes it away. Dee also gets frustated. This is where Mama realies the value of her disabled
daugther’s menerrism againts her bold beautiful daughter.

After revealing the story, it’s clear that Walker’s short story is not merely enjoy to be read, but
there are some serious insight within the story. Each element is used in the story is thought
seriously and interdependent with the other elements. These elements work together in making a
beautiful story. Based on the description above this paper would analyze all the intrinsic elements
of the short story. This paper, focus on describing each intrinsic element entirely without
separating from the other elements in order to be enjoyed and understood in its totality. It’s with
the intention to understand and enjoy Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use“ better, hence a study of
intrinsic elements in the short story is needed to be done.

Furthermore, this paper entitled An Analysis of Intrinsic Elements in Alice Walker’s

“Everyday Use “. There are eight intrinsic elements would be analyzed in this paper, which are:

Plot

According to Kennedy (1983: 9) plot is the artistic arrangement of event in a story. While,
Koestonosoebroto (1988: 28) cites that plot is the arrangement of the details and incidents in the
story. He said that plot has beginning, middle and an end. To conclude, a plot is the arrangement of
bide together chronological events which have causal and thematic connections.

Borrowed in Koestono Soebroto (1988: 32) cite that plot of the traditional short story is often
conceived of as moving though five distinct sections or stages, which are:
1. Exposition, the beginning section in which the author provides the necessary background
information, sets the scene, establishes the situation and dates the action.
2. Complication, the rising action or inciting conflict
3. Crisis or climax is the moment at which the plot reaches its point of greatest emotional
intensity.
4. Falling action, the tension subsides and the plot moves forward its appointed conclusion.
5. Resolution, the final section of the plot in its resolution; it records the outcome of the
conflict and establishes some new stability.

In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” follows such conventional plot development, which is begin
from exposition and finish in resolution. At the beginning of the story is exposing Mama waiting
in the yard. “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday
afternoon. A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is
like an extended living room “(Walker, 1973:1). And she moves away from her description of the
yard to describe herself as “a large big-boned woman with rough, man working hands. In the
winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as
mercilessly as a man” (p. 2). Then she moves to describe the contrast condition between her
daughters, Maggie and Dee.

Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car,
sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been
 like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the
ground (p. 2).

Dee has different personality with her sister Maggie.

She wanted nice things. A yellow organdie dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to
match a green suit she’d made from an old suit somebody gave me. She was determined to stare down any
disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation to
shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was (p. 2).

From those quotations at the beginning of the story, Walker provides an introduction into the
situation and the characters in the story. The narrator exposes life of main characters. Suddenly,
the plot moves to the rising action that Dee is coming toward the house with her boyfriend, Hakim-
a-Barber. She wants to recollect the family heritages, such as, wooden bench, butter dishes, quilts
from her mother to hang it on the wall.

Oh. Mama! She cried. Then, turned to Hakim a barber. I never knew how lovely these benches are. You can
feel the rump prints, she said, running her hands underneath her and along the bench. Then she gave a sigh and
her hand closed over Grandma Dee's butter dish. That's it! She said. I knew there was something I wanted to
ask you if I could have. She jumped up from the table and went over in the corner where the churn stood, the
milk in it crabber by now (p. 5).

But Mama has already promised to give the quilts to Maggie. “The truth is, I said, I promised to
give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries to John Thomas” (p. 6). From those quotations
above Walker begin develops a conflict between the characters. The quilts in the story become a
central conflict which is snacked away by Dee and Maggie.

And the plot reaches its point of greatest emotional intensity, the climax is when Dee is angry with
her mother whom giving the quilts to Maggie for everyday use instead of her. “Dee looked at me
with hatred. You just will not understand. The point is these quilts!” (p. 6). The quotation reveals
that Walker confronts the characters to react to the situation. Dee persistent, that Maggie can not
appreciate the quilts.

Next, the plot moves to falling action, Maggie gives up the quilts to her sister. “She can have them,
Mama, she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for
her” (p. 6). This quotation Walker presents an effort in which the major character/ protagonist
attempts to solve the complication only to meet unsatisfactory solutions to the reader. In here the
reader is interested in knowing how in the end the protagonist (Maggie) will solve her problem
after unsatisfactory solution.

Finally at the end of the story, Mama understands that Maggie is more deserve to have the quilts
than Dee who doesn’t know the history of the quilts.
 I looked at her hard. She had filled her bottom lip with checkerberry snuff and gave her face a kind of dopey,
hangdog look. It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself. She stood there with her
scarred hands hidden in the folds of her skirt. She looked at her sister with something like fear but she wasn't
mad at her. This was Maggie's portion. This was the way, she knew God to work (p.6).

In the resolution, Walker shows that the character (Mama) is forced to make agonizing decision
that will point to the solution of the complication by giving the quilts to Maggie. The solution to
the complication must be satisfying the reader.

After revealing the end of the story, it is clear enough that the characteristics of plot in Walker’s
“Everyday Use is close plot, where the end of the story doesn’t stimulate the readers to continue
the plot itself. The plot in “Everyday Use” is categorized as flashback story, which is tell
character’s memory in the past and continuing the story in the present.

Character and characterization

Kennedy (1983: 45) tries to define character as an imagined person who inhabits a story.
Furthermore, the definition character is the thing/ person in a dramatic or narrative work, endowed
with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say and what they do. On the
basis of importance, we can distinguish two types of character, main character (Most important
character in a story) and minor character (less important character than those of the main). The
chief character in fiction is called protagonist and important opponent pitted against him is called
the antagonist, who provides opposition.

According to E.M: Foster in Kennedy (1983: 46) character distinguish into 2 types based o the
proportion their development, which are flat character (who represent a single characteristic, trait,
or idea, or at most a very limited number of such qualities) and around characters, embody a
number of qualities and traits and are complex multidimensional characters of considerable
intellectual and emotional depth who have capacity to grow and change. To sum up, flat is type
character without much individualizing detail tend to stay the same throughout a story, but round
characters often change learn or become enlightened, grow or deteriorate.

According to Perrine in Koesnosoebroto (1988: 111) author may present his character either
directly or indirectly. Direct method is revealing character or characterization by telling, which
include characterization through the use of names (name that reinforce their physical appearance),
through appearance (appearance provide essential clues to character), by the author (editorial
comments). By contrast there are essentially two methods of indirect characterization by showing.
Characterization through dialogue (what character say) and characterization through action (what
character do).
In Walker’s “Everyday Use” there are four characters inhabit in the story, which are Mama,
Maggie, Dee and Hakim-a-barber. Mama, Maggie and Dee are the main characters in the story and
Hakim-a-barber is the minor character.

Mama in the story characterizes herself as a large big-boned woman with rough, man working
hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and
clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (p. 2). This description, along with her reference to 2nd grade
graduation (p. 2), leads the reader to conclude that this woman is very proud of her life. However,
her lack of education does not prevent her to understand her heritage based on her love and respect
her surroundings. This proven by her delight in the making of quilts, which is from her grand’s
clothes.

In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of
Grandpa Jattell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was
from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War.” Some of the pieces, like those lavender
ones, come from old clothes her mother handed down to her,” (Mama) said, moving up to touch the quilts (p.
5).

In this quotation, Walker gives clear explanation that Mama very admired and caring her quilts,
because there are some history behind the quits, she use the quilts to remember her ancestors. On
the other hand, Dee is portrayed as a smart and beautiful woman. She is very vocal and aggressive
in their demands.

She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting
trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make believe, burned us with a lot of
know edge we didn't necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us
away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand (p. 2).

From the quotation above, it is indicated that Dee think she is superior to the others, she like to
humiliate someone for their disability. Dee characterization is contrast with her daughter Maggie.
Maggie is shy, inferior and not smart, but she has respect to her family heritage. Mama first
describes Maggie’s nature by saying “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will
stand hopelessly in the corners homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs,
eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe” (p. 1).

Due to the author’s use of characterizations and the type of characters they are, Mama and Maggie
are round characters and Dee is flat character. Between Dee and Mama-Maggie are opposite
characters. Dee is the antagonist and Maggie is the protagonist. Dee’s character does not change.
At the beginning of the story, her mother, the narrator, describes Dee’s actions as their old home is
lit on fire with her sister inside. Dee’s reaction to this event was uncaring. Dee’s mother thought
that she would “do a dance around the ashes [of the burning house]” (p. 2).
Later in the story, she still cares only for herself. When her mother decides to give the quilts to her
sister instead of her, Dee arrogantly claims that Maggie can not appreciate the value of the quilts.
On the other hand, Mama and Maggie have many characteristics. The author carefully develops
them to be someone whom is always obeyed what Dee said, but at the end of the story Mama does
not give the quilts to Dee, which makes them a round character. However, Dee’s character can be
described easily in a few words: materialistic, superficial, and uncaring. Dee cares nothing for the
truth, which her mother is trying to bestow upon her. Dee tries to embrace her African heritage;
however, by changing her name, mannerisms, and appearance, she is actually denying her real
heritage, which is American.

A lot of the characterizations in the story are described through the appearance, for example:

Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car,
sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been
like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the
ground (p. 2).

But even the first glimpse of leg out of the car tells me it is Dee. Her feet were always neat looking, as if God
himself had shaped them with a certain style. From the other side of the car comes a short, stocky man. Hair is
all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail (p. 3).

The details in the paragraph tell us a good deel about the contrast character between Maggie and
Dee. We can learn through their appearance that Maggie is lack confident than her sister, Dee,
whom is beautiful and stylist.

Setting

Koesnosoebroto (1988: 79) cites that setting is in a sense and time, place, and concrete situation of
the narrative, the web of environment in which characters spin out their destinies. In short, setting
is time and place of story. It is when and where the action occurs.

“Everyday Use” takes place in the yard and in the house of the Johnson family in rural Georgina at
day, the location and time are revealed in the beginning paragraph.

A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living
room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular
grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside
the house (p. 1).

It is hard to see them clearly through the strong sun. But even the first glimpse of leg out of the car tells me it is
Dee. Her feet were always neat looking, as if God himself had shaped them with a certain style (p. 3).
The setting in “Everyday Use” as a means of creating appropriate atmosphere which is arousing
the readers’ expectation and establishing an appropriate state of mind for event to come.

I have deliberately turned my back on the house. It is three rooms, just like the one that burned, except the roof
is tin; they don't make shingle roofs any more. There are no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides, like
the portholes in a ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutters up on the outside. This
house is in a pasture, too, like the other one. No doubt when Dee sees it she will want to tear it down (p. 3).

The room, which Walker skillfully makes us both see and feel, is as inaccessible, gloomy and
small room, as its own and as such establishes an appropriate mood that anticipates and for
shadows eventual meeting with Mama and Dee.

Point of View (POV)

According to Kennedy (1983: 44) point of view is the method of narration that determines the
position (angle of position) from which the story is told. To sum up POV is angle from whose are
the story had been told. The choice of point of view is the choice of who is to tell the story
(narrator). It may be narrator outside the work (omniscient POV). A narrator inside the work tells
the story from a limited omniscient or first person point of view, or apparently no one (dramatic
point of view).

Walker’s “Everyday Use” is written in the first person point of view, which is Mama is the
narrator of the story.

Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdie dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to
match a green suit she'd made from an old suit somebody gave me. She was determined to stare down any
disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation to
shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was (p. 2).

Although the narrator is there, the story is not about Mama, but she tells about her daughters, seen
through the narrator’s eyes. Because the narrator is not omniscient of the thought of her daughters,
the readers are only shown what the narrator’s genuine witness concerning her daughter’s
personality.

Theme and Moral Value

According to Perrine in Koesnosoebroto (1988: 78) theme of story is way be stated very briefly or
at greater length. The theme may be manifested in the central insight which explains the greatest
number of elements in story and relates them to each other. To conclude theme is the sum up of the
point of a story. Theme is the broad idea of the story. Themes of ten explore timeless and universal
ideas.
Theme is different with moral value. Theme is not a moral or message that could impact the reader
but it’s more about what the story is about. In moral value, there are message that purposed by the
author which has been fit to the readers.

The theme of “Everyday Use” is about the conflicts between mother and the one of the daughter,
in opposing views on heritage and culture. Through “Everyday Use”, Walker teaches moral lesson
about heritage and identity. First, “Everyday Use” asserts that family history should be apart of
everyday life. Second, appreciating the family heritage is not by displaying it as object admiration
but rather takes the benefit of the heritage in everyday life. Third, Walker teaches simplicity and
happiness through Mama and Maggie’s life. Fourth, in Dee condition, Walker teaches that if we
want to gain happiness, we should not have to be someone else or another culture, but you have to
accept the way you are or what you have already.

Style and Tone

According to Pickering and Hoper (1981: 80) style is the author’s characteristics in writing his/her
works to achieve the certain effects. Style usually consists of diction (the individual words an
author chooses) and syntax (the arrangement of those words in to phrases, clauses, and sentences)
as well as figurative language, irony. In general, style refers to the individual traits or
characteristics of a piece of writing, writer’s particular ways of managing words that we come to
recognize as habitual or customary.

Furthermore Pickering and Hoper (1981: 87) cites that tone as it is used to characterize the special
qualities of accent, inflection and duration in a speaker voice. In general tone is the author’s
attitude / the mood of the story, it’s reflected from their words, it may be humorous, nostalgic,
serious, sarcastic, etc.

In Walker’s “Everyday Use”, she uses some African terms to emphasize the fact that Dee has
claimed African culture and neglect her American ancestor. When she came home she greats her
mother in African “Wasuno-Teano! (p.3) and follows up with her boyfriend Hakim a Barber
"Asalamalakim, my mother and sister!" (p. 3). Those quotations try to illustrate that Walker uses
some African language emphasing African culture in Dee’s personality. Walker also uses different
style of writing. In some parts, she dramatizes the story in dialogue. In some others, the parts when
the narrator is reflecting about the past, she uses long sentences, to cope with the line of thought
she is having.

How long ago was it that the other house burned? Ten, twelve years? Sometimes I can still hear the flames and
feel Maggie's arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes.
Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflected in them. And Dee. I see her standing off
under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last
 dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot brick chimney. Why don't you do a dance around the
ashes? I'd wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much (p.2).

The tone in Walker’s “Everyday Use” is depend on the attitude or the mood of the narrator (whom
is Mama) toward the circumstance surround her. In the opening sentences we can feel Mama’s
calm about how comfortable the yard looks.

“A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living
room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular
grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside
the house (p. 1).

But, she quickly becomes defensive when she begins talking about Dee. "I reckon she would," I said.
"God knows I been saving 'em for long enough with nobody using 'em. I hope she will!" (p. 6).
Then we can feel Mama’s pride, by describing herself as “a large big-boned woman with rough,
man-working hand” (p. 1).

Yet even while she defends her own sense of self, she never slides into disapproval but maintains a
tone of pride: “Johnny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.” (p. 1).
She is compassionate when she speaks about Maggie, but critical when she speaks about Dee and
frequently sarcastic when she speaks to her “Hang them, she said. As if that was the only thing you
could do with quilts” (p. 6). Dee’s anger also can see when she confronts her mother, "Maggie can't
appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." (p. 5).
At the end of the story, she chastises Dee so severely and shows so little love for her while
hugging Maggie close to her. The image is a harsh one—a mother hugging Maggie and, in effect,
send away Dee away

Irony

Koesnosubroto (1988: 135) states that irony is a relatively simple and economical device by which
a writer can suggest tone meaning without elaborated explanations. It’s involves both an
incongruity and the opposite of what one experts. In short, irony is a literal style a playing such
contrasts for the humorous or rhetorical.

The four types of irony that occur most frequently in literature are verbal irony (in which there is a
contrast between what a speaker literally says and what he or she means); irony of situation (in
which an event turns out to be the reserve of what he or she means); irony point of view (in which
sense a sharp distinction between the narrator of a story and the author); irony of fate (in which
suggests that some malicious fate is deliberately frustrating human efforts).
In “Everyday Use” the irony comes from the situation when the sisters have different intended
using the quilts. Dee and Maggie have different perspective of their heritage family. Dee who
claimed o be highly educated has no real understanding or respect for her mother’s ancestors. Dee
use quilts, as object admiration without knowing the history behind them. “Hang them, she said.
As if that was the only thing you could do with the quilts” (p. 6). This idea is contrast with Mom
and Maggie perspective of their heritage family. Despite their lack education Maggie and Mama is
very aware of her heritage. This is proven by her statement to Dee about the churn dasher, “Aunt
Dee's first husband whittled the dash,” said Maggie so low you almost couldn't hear her. "His
name was Henry, but they called him Stash “(p. 5).

This situation irony also happen when Dee tell her mother that she change her name to “Wangero
Leewanika Kemanjo” (p. 4). The names “Wangero” and “Kemanjo” are misspellings of Kikiyu
name “Wanjiro” and “Kamenjo”. Leewanika is an African name, but it not Kikiyu. The name
revelations seem that Dee does not really understand with her new culture (Hoel, 1997 in
http://home.online.no/helhoel/walker.htm.).

Furthermore, how Dee’s greeting adds some irony of situation. When she comes home she greets
her mother using African language. "Wa-su-zo-Tean-o," (p. 3). It is actually pre-noon daytime
Luganda language greeting used by the Baganda of Uganda. It directly means, "How did you
sleep?”. “The correct wording is, "Wasuze otya nno?". This quotation also reveals that Dee
actually does not care her new culture.

Symbol

Kennedy (1983: 145) cites that symbol in literature is a thing that suggests more than its literal
meaning. Symbols generally do not stand for any one meaning, not for anything absolutely
definite, they point, they hint, they cast long shadows. In general symbol is something that diverse
something else. Furthermore Kennedy states that indefinite multiplicity of meanings is
characteristic of symbolic story and distinguishes it from an allegory, a story in which person,
place, and a thing form a system of clearly labelled equivalents.

Symbols are often classified as being traditional symbols (those whose associations are common
property of a society or culture and widely recognized); original symbols (those whose
associations largely if not exclusively from the context of the work in which they are used); Private
symbols (symbols that are the products of their own peculiar and idiosyncratic systems of
philosophy or belief). Sometime the authors of fiction employ symbols in conjunction with setting,
plot and character, which help stimulating the imagination.
The symbolism in “Everyday Use “is very dominant in defying the traits of characters toward the
heritage. Walker uses the quilt and the main characters (Mama, Maggie and Dee) as symbol to
create a deeper meaning of the story.

In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of
Grandpa Jattell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was
from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War.” Some of the pieces, like those lavender
ones, come from old clothes her mother handed down to her,” (Mama) said, moving up to touch the quilts (p.
5).

In this quotation, Walker gives clear explanation that the quits have special meaning to Mama.
When she touches the quilts, she believes that she is touching the people whom the quilts
representation. Quilts in here categorized as private symbol (symbols that are the products of their
own peculiar and idiosyncratic systems of philosophy or belief). Quilts are referred to in many of
Walker’s works. In the Colour Purple, she uses a quilt to help a dying woman remember her
mother. Walker uses quilt to symbolize a bound between woman of several generations.

Walker tries to expose the different possible approaches to define the concept of black heritage,
symbolized by the three characters, Mama (Mrs. Joshnson), Maggie and Dee (Wangero). The
characters symbols, (those whose associations largely, if not exclusively from the context of the
word in which they are used). Walker reveals the character of Maggie as shy, inferior and not
smart, but she respects her family heritage. “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” (p.1). Maggie’s inferiority is symbol of the
African-American who is left behind. Her scars are symbol of slavery humiliation in the past. On
the other hand, Dee (Wangero) has different idea about heritage; Dee has more superficial seeing
the family heritage.

She would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation is no part of her nature. She was determined to stare down
any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation
to shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was” (p. 2).

Walker uses Dee to symbolize the Black Power movement, who were very vocal and aggressive in
their demands. Many of them denied their American Ancestors and prefer belong to certain aspect
of African culture. Mama is a symbol of the majority Black-American people who is confuse in
defining their heritage concept. Mama doesn’t know how to reconcile with painful and humiliation
as the part of African-American history, but also not quite comfortable with the Black power
movement that doesn’t respect their ancestors.
Conclusion

After analyzing the intrinsic elements in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, the conclusion can be as
follow:

• Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” actually short story represents her response to the concept
of the Black people heritage in late of 60’s. The conflicts between views of culture and
heritage are the main theme in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”.
• “Everyday Use” set in the yard and in the house of the Johnson family in rural Georgia. It’s
told in first point of view, with Mama as the narrator.
• At the beginning of the story, Walker exposing the life of the poor black mother Mrs.
Johnson with her daughters Dee and Maggie. The complication begins when Dee
(Wangero) visits her old home with her boyfriend to recollect her family heritage. And she
has changed her name to African name and adopted African culture. The culminating point
of the story in the moment when Mama refuses to give Dee some old quilts instead gives
them to Maggie. The tension subside when Maggie give in the quilts to Dee. But Mama has
another resolution, she believes that Maggie is more deserve to keep the quilts who knows
and aware how to treat their family heritage.
• These quilts are the central image of the story and represent the concept of heritage quilts is
symbol of unifying the different generations that are made it. There is history behind the
quilts making.
• Maggie and Dee are contrastive characters. Dee, the antagonist, is beautiful but arrogant
type of woman. Maggie, the protagonist; being inferior, lack of confident and not smart.
Mama is down to earth person, who really respect her heritage family.
• The three of them have different perspective in viewing their family heritage. Mama and
Maggie view the family heritage, in this context is the quilts as a tradition in “Every Use”.
These characters are symbolized the Black-American who respect and proud of their
ancestors. On the other hand Dee who prefers to neglect an abandon and abandon their
American heritage and belong to certain aspect of African heritage, is symbol of Black
Power Movement.
• The different idea in viewing heritage concept, emerging such the irony of the situation.
Dee who claimed to be highly educated has no real understanding or respect for her
mother’s ancestors. Dee use quilts, as object admiration without knowing the history
behind them. Opposing view with Maggie, whom is lact educated but she is very aware her
family haritage, Maggie knows the history of the quilts.
• Walker successfully make the reader feel the emotions of the two conflicting daughters,
sometimes the reader can feel the anger, the happiness, the sadness, the irony, though
 Mama’s eyes. Sometimes Walker uses long sentences to cope with the line of thought the
mother having in mind.
• Through “Everyday Use”, Walker teaches moral lesson about heritage and identity.
“Everyday Use” asserts that family history should be apart of everyday life. Appreciating
the admiration but rather takes the benefit of the heritage in everyday life.
 References
Primary literature:
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use” in http://xroads.virginia.edu/-ug97/quilt/walker.html (20.11.2010)
Secondary literature:
Hoel, Helga. 1997. Personal Name and Heritage: Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” in
http://home.online.no/helhoel/walker.htm. (20.11.2010)
Kennedy, X.J. 1983. An introduction to Fiction: third Edition. Boston: Little Brown and Company
Koesnoesoebroto, Sunaryo Basuki. 1988. The Anatomy of Prose Fiction. Jakarta: Departemen
Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Direktorat Jendral Pendidikan tinggi Proyek Pengembangan
Lembaga Pendidikan Tenaga Kerja
Pickering, James H and Jeffrey D Hoeper. 1981. Concise Companion to literature. New York:
Macmillan Publising Co., Inc