Everday Use

             In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," symbols play a significant role. It is a family oriented story based on love and caring, and, at the same time, insolence and discourtesy. Alice Walker's use of symbolism prompts the reader to take a deeper look into the story. There are a few symbols in this short narrative that tell the story all in its own. .
             "Everyday Use" is a story about three women, a family that lives in dingy three room house. It did not even have real windows, rather, it had holes in the walls resembling port holes on a ship. Maggie and Dee were the daughters of the narrator of the story. Maggie was burned in a fire that destroyed their first house. She is quiet and respectful, while Dee was the vein, arrogant daughter. Maggie is very involved her heritage and where her roots came from. Her mother had two quilts that were passed down from generation to generation made up of old swatches of clothes from her great grandparents. Maggie and Dee were both supposed to get one, but at that time, Dee had no interest in the quilts. So after Dee left for college and it was just Maggie and her mother, Maggie was going to get both quilts. .
             Alice Walker used symbols throughout the short story. The most noticeable one was the quilts. They symbolized the years of oppression that African American faced and are still .
             facing. In this particular story, they stood for the deep rooted history of Maggie, Dee, and their mother. They also were meant to be used in their everyday lives. When Dee came back home and was more into her heritage, she wanted the quilts. She had changed her name from Dee to Wangero because she did not want the name of the people who oppressed her. She felt she deserved the quilts because she would take better care of them than Maggie would. She said Maggie would put them to "Everyday Use" (Guth, Pg 242.) and she would hang them and care for them like they should be.