Author: Alice Walker
Main Characters:
The narrator: In the story she is known as "Mama." Mama is the mother to Maggie and Dee.
Maggie: Maggie is Mama's youngest daughter. She is a young girl most likely around the age of 12 years old. Maggie is thin, not attractive, and has burn marks on her legs from a house fire she was in.
Dee: Dee is Maggie's older sister and of course Mama's oldest daughter. Dee is living on her own and is a very outgoing, flamboyant young woman. Dee adores fashion and dresses very well. Dee changes her name from Dee to Wangero.
Asalamalakim: Dee's male companion. He is not a big part of the story. He has little dialogue and he tries to be friendly with Maggie, to which Maggie is a bit wary. We are not told whether or not they are married, but I get the sense that they are not. Asalamalakim has very long hair and is of a short and stocky stature.
Summary:
Maggie and Mama are awaiting the arrival of Dee, Maggie's older sister. She no longer lives in the family home and has moved away from the rural life and now enjoys the fine things she can find in the city. She arrives with a man, who we don't know if she is married to or not. The man, (we will call him "A" in this summary do to the laborious nature of spelling his name) A attempts to shake Maggie's hand and she retreats.
Dee arrives and announces she has changed her name to Wangero. This appears to me to be an attempt to find a new identity in her new life. Also, she most likely thought it sounded more sophisticated than Dee. She is dressed very stylishly and the family says their hellos, then goes in for dinner.
Dinner was pleasing to everyone and they had nice conversation. After dinner, Dee went to Mama's hopechest that sat at the foot of the bed. She found some handmade quilts she decided she wanted to have. They did hold sentimental value for her as they were made from scraps of a great grandmothers, dress, an old childhood coat, etc. Dee and her mother got into a disucssion about the quilts, Mama announcing to Dee that she had already promised some of the quilts to Maggie. Dee's concern was that Maggie would use them as everyday quilts and not cherish them as she would as treasured family heirlooms. Dee accepted Mama's wishes and she and A left.
What do I know about the story/topic I am reading?
I had never heard of this story before, but I'm glad I read it. It is not surprising that a bit of "The Color Purple" comes through since both stories are the work of Alice Walker. As I read, I could see in my mind's eye the small, nondescript house where Maggie and her mother lived. I could sense Maggie's lonliness and shyness due to her physical injuries.
What can you imagine that is not specifically outlined?
As I continued to read, I could feel the excitement and see clearly in my mind the colorful character Dee, pulling up in her car with Asalamalakim. She gets out of the car in her yellow and orange dress accented by her gold earrings. I can see that Dee does not really fit in to her mother and Maggie's environment. Dee wants more than that for herself and she appears to have achieved it to some degree. I also get the feeling that Dee is the domineering personality in her relationship with Asalamalakim. He seems so quiet, and I picture Dee being rather loud and boisterous, although still feminine.
How does this story relate to my own life?
While my paternal grandmother wasn't a big boned woman as the narrator is described, the two remind me of each other. My grandmother was a seamstress and the single mother of 4 chidren. Her life was not easy and the life that Maggie and her mother are living, and the life that Dee is seeking to abandon remind me very much of how my grandmother lived.
While I read, I found myself really liking all the characters. Dee is my favorite, and I think her sense of adventure intrigues me. She does seem to have a selfish streak, though and I couldn't understand why she changed her name to Wangero. Perhaps she wanted to have a new identity, or perhaps it was just something she did on a whim because of her youth. I am struck by the irony of her giving up her name, which was a family name handed down for generations, yet, she wanted the old quilts made by her grandmother and saw them as priceless heirlooms.
What was my emotional response to what I read?
I was very happy that in the end Maggie would end up with the handmade quilts. For some reason I really wanted Maggie to have them and I'm glad her mother saw it that way too. I felt her mother giving the quilts to Maggie did her heart good. I saw Maggie being cheered up by this gesture.
How would I feel if this had happened to me?
That depends on which character I was. I would prefer to be Dee so, I will speak from her perspective. I would have been extremely happy to be removed from the poverty stricken environment. I would have been like Dee and migrated to the big cities where opportunity presented itself. I would have also loved to have the quilts as heirlooms, and I can see Dee's concern that they will be worn out and lost if Maggie uses them as "everyday" quilts, but, I would have understood as well that they were promised to Maggie.
Would I recommend this story to others?
I rate this story a 10. I would highly recommend it due to the characters. I think most people have met each of these characters in someone at some point in time. It does also bring up something that I find very important- Family heritage. I feel to have something like the quilts in this story, something handmade by my grandmother would be such a gift. With all the things my grandmother made, I do not have one thing from her. In a nutshell, "Everyday Use" is a great story about family, tradition, and love.
About the Author:
Alice Walker was born in 1944, and grew up in poverty. As a youngster, she was shot in the eye with a BB gun and suffered from the disfigurment until she had corrective surgery during college. She attended Spelman College and then went on to Sarah Lawrence College where she grew acustomed to the cosmopolitan ways of the north. One of her most famous works is "The Color Purple," which was made into an award winning movie starring numerous highly regarded movie stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment