What kind of person is Dee?
Dee is educated, worldly, and deeply determined, not generally allowing her desires to be thwarted. When Mama won’t let her have the quilts to display, she becomes furious. She claims that Mama and Maggie don’t understand their heritage, but she is the one overlooking the important aspects of her family history.
What do quilts symbolize in everyday use?
In “Everyday Use” quilts represent the creativity, skill, and resourcefulness of African American women. Women like Grandma Dee used and reused whatever material they had at hand to create functional, beautiful items. Quilts also represent the Johnson family heritage in particular.
Why are the quilts important in everyday use?
The quilts are pieces of living history, documents in fabric that chronicle the lives of the various generations and the trials, such as war and poverty, that they faced. The quilts serve as a testament to a family’s history of pride and struggle.
What happens in everyday use by Alice Walker?
In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker takes up what is a recurrent theme in her work: the representation of the harmony as well as the conflicts and struggles within African-American culture. “Everyday Use” focuses on an encounter between members of the rural Johnson family.
Who wrote everyday use?
Alice Walker
Why has Dee changed her name?
Dee changes her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo as a way to establish her new identity as an independent, proud African woman. In doing so, Dee rejects her traditional family heritage in favor of renouncing the former slave owners that initially named her ancestors.
What type of character is mama in everyday use?
Mama, the narrator of the story, is a strong, loving mother who is sometimes threatened and burdened by her daughters, Dee and Maggie. Gentle and stern, her inner monologue offers us a glimpse of the limits of a mother’s unconditional love.