Essay Example on Everyday Use: Exploring Heritage & Values

In 'everyday use' the author Alice Walker narrates a story of a certain mother who is in a conflicted relationship with her two daughters namely Dee and Maggie. On its surface, Alice walker through "everyday Use" narrates how a mother rejects the superficial values of her older and successful daughter in favor of the younger less fortunate daughter who possesses practical values. Moreover, on a deeper level, the author is exploring the concept of heritage, and she uses the concept of Dee (Wangero), mama, and Maggie to clarify the cultural theme (Eder 23, 2014).

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In "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, the author applied the use of rhetorical strategies throughout the text to bring out the clear meaning of the text. Moreover, the rhetorical strategies have been used by the author to convey meaning, to persuade as well as to evoke the emotion of the readers. Hence, Alice Walker has employed the use of the following strategies in her text, the use of imagery, metaphors, humorous, similes, irony, monologue and symbols. These strategies as explained in the subsequent paragraph majorly help in the classification of the speakers appeals to the readers.

One of the rhetorical strategies which are employed by Alice Walker in 'Everyday Use' is the use of imagery. The use of imagery in the text builds upon other devices such as a smile or metaphor. Moreover, the mother who is the narrator employed the use of animal imagery in the text to describe her daughters, Dee and Maggie as well as Dee boyfriend (Eder 27, 2014). For instance, the mother asks, "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 ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks."

Another instance where the use of smile as a rhetorical strategy is applied is when Dee and her boyfriend Asalamakim arrived, and the Wangero boyfriend wishes to shake maggie's hand (Eder 2014). In the process of shaking her hand, he said, "Maggie's hand is as limp as a fish."

There is also another use of animal imagery in another smile by the mother who described Dee's boyfriend hair; "it stands straight up like the wool on a sheep," and the beards hang "like a kinky mule tail."

The animal imagery which is used by the mother to describe wangero and her boyfriend is humorous. Thus, it points out the ridiculous appearance of the transformed Dee and her boyfriend.

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker is riddled with symbolism. The author has used symbols to bring greater meaning to her story. Moreover, Dee and Maggie's characters have been used by Walker to symbolize the prodigal son as well as his eldest brother in the bible story. In addition to the symbolism of wangero and Maggie, the author further makes the importance as well as the meaning of the heritage to Maggie and mama more vivid (Eder 29, 2014). Also, the quilts became symbolic majorly of the clash between various identities; for instance, Dee wants to quilts to display which is a kind of folk art. On the other hand, Margie would use the quilts; hence, what is regarded as a kind of art for Dee is generally something Margie and her mother uses every day which gives the story its title.

Also, Alice Walker has utilized the rhetorical strategy of irony for instance when she shows Wangero's ignorance of her family history as well as her knowledge of the Black Muslim origin majorly through dialogue and actions (Eder 31, 2014). Thus, Alice Walker has masterfully employed the use of symbolism and irony in the text to critically address the relationship that existed between Dee, mama, and Maggie.

Finally, the story began with extended internal monologues which merely on the mothers part it introduces specific conflicts which arose between wangero (Dee) and her mother.

Reference

Eder, M. (2014). Alice Walker's Short Story "Everyday Use." Munchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH.