Everyday Use Sources for your Essay

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

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Like a quilt, a person's world view is made up of events, circumstances and influences that shape how they see and respond to the world.." (Eshbaugh, 2008, p

Life Lessons in \"Everyday Use\"


Walker puts forth an important commentary about heritage with the unusual twist of quilts and beauty. Elizabeth Piedmont-Marton observes "Dee views her heritage as an artifact which she can possess and appreciate from a distance instead of as a process in which she is always intimately involved" (Piedmont-Marton)

Life Lessons in \"Everyday Use\"


She tells Maggie it is a "new days for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it" (Walker 1428)

Life Lessons in \"Everyday Use\"


Whitsitt notes that Dee takes pictures of the family but she is never in any of them, suggesting, "Dee wants to make sure that she has a picture of herself not being in the picture. She wants to frame that world, define its borders, give it a wholeness which then allows her to handle it without being a part of it" (Whitsitt)

Everyday Use, Walker When Reading


" When she visits this country home she believes she has outgrown, Wangero unsuccessfully tries to divert some beautiful old quilts, which are to be part of her sister's dowry, into her own hands. Walker compares this desire of Wangero with a modern African-American author: "Only by remaining in touch with a proximate history and an immediate cultural reality can one lay a claim to the quilts -- or hope to produce the authentic art they represent" (Cowart)

Everyday Use, Walker When Reading


Instead, Walker is emphasizing that it should not only be those involved with the Black Power movement who should define African-American heritage. "African-Americans must take ownership of their entire heritage, including the painful, unpleasant parts (White)

Everyday Use

Year : 2003