In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use,” symbolism is employed to show the clashing of rural and urban identities between mother and daughter. It is through character, physical setting, and objects that Walker weaves a tapestry of conflicting points of view, and begs the question—how is feminist theory represented in “Everyday Use,” and how is it representational in the everyday world?
In his book, "Foucault and Feminism: Power, Gender and the Self," author Lois McNay latches onto a very powerful quote by Michael Foucault. Foucault remarks:
One must observe also that there cannot be relations of power unless the subjects are free. If one or the other were completely at the disposition of the other and became his thing, an object on which he can exercise an infinite and unlimited violence, there would not be relations of power. In order to exercise a relation of power, there must be on both sides at least a certain form of liberty (McNay 67).
Dee Johnson, changing her name to that of an African root-oriented name, is a specific and significant “power” choice by the character. In "Feminist Alternatives: Irony and Fantasy in the Contemporary Novel by Women," author Nancy A. Walker discusses the importance of names in terms of ones identity. She writes, “Names are closely tied to identity, and the claiming or conferring of a name is an indication of selfhood” (61). In “Everyday Use,” we see this “indication of selfhood” in Wangero, who remarks, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker 2440). Dee went back to her African name because it reacquainted herself with her roots. When masters endowed names upon their slaves, it indicated a sense of ownership and property over them. Wangero feels that if she went by the name given to her by her mother, she would lose her self-identity.
The difference in styles of clothing between Mrs. Johnson and Wangero adds deeper literary symbolism to their characters’ points of view and how they are represented, as “female,” in the world today. Mrs. Johnson reflects, “In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day” (Walker 2437). The unappealing flannel nightgown and overalls; with their rough texture and confining shoulder straps, are indicative of the clothing worn by her ancestors, who labored in the fields, constrained by the chains of slavery. Mrs. Johnson’s clothing contrasts that of Wangero, who enters into the story wearing, “A dress so loud it hurts my eyes . . . earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises . . .” (Walker 2439). Wangero enters, wearing a head-turning outfit proclaiming her new identity. According to her mother, this new sense of self occurred at an early age. Mrs. Johnson remarks, “At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was” (Walker 2438). This is a clear feminist “power position” through which Wangro has adopted supremacy over her mother. Mcnay writes, “Practices of the self are situated at this level of power relations, at the point where individuals autonomously order their own lives and, in doing so, attempt to influence other individuals” (Mcnay 67). Society has conditioned Wangero and she has succeeded in removing both outward and inward traits of her former self, and has clothed herself in a new identity that is meant to be seen and heard—a new identity, which tries to influence her mother and sister to “get with” the times.
The physical setting of Everyday Use is a key factor that unites the conflicting views of Mrs. Johnson and Wangero’s newly found “I am Woman” attitude. Isolated from society, the house represents a clear distinction between mother and daughter; the sophisticated urban individual vs. the simplistic rural individual. In his essay “Everyday Use and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Escaping Antebellum Confinement,” Dr. Charles E. Wilson, Jr. writes, “Although Dee insists that she wants a better life for her family, she in fact luxuriates in their poverty” (Wilson 176). To articulate his point, Dr. Wilson cites Alice Walker’s line, “she never takes a shot without making sure the house is included” (Walker 2439). The house, with its embarrassing structure, symbolizes everything Wangero despised of her former self, yet she uses the house as a diving board to show her refinement as a woman. A board in her mind which propels her into the upper, “correct” echelon of feminist ideology.
If the house represents the diving board, which launches Wangero to her idealized self, then the yard is its swimming pool. The yard represents a powerful invitation for Wangero to dive into the family again—to rekindle lost conversations. Walker represents the yard as, “. . . an extended living room” (2437). Living rooms signify togetherness and communication amongst family members. According to Dr. Wilson, “The care they take in preparing the yard is indicative of their deep pride in their domestic life. . . by extending the living room of her yard, Mrs. Johnson welcomes those who will accept her hospitality” (Wilson 175). This interpretation skillfully shows a contrast to Wangero’s own self-pride in her ability to escape self-servitude—and her inability to speak the same language as her mother. In her book, "What is a Woman? And Other Essays," author Toril Moi writes:
There are situations in which we freely choose to be recognized as sexed or raced bodies, where that recognition is exactly what we need and want. Identity politics starts with such identity-affirming situations, but unfortunately goes on to base a general politics on them, thus forgetting that there are other situations in which we do not want to be defined by our sexed and raced bodies, situations in which we wish that body to be no more than the insignificant background to our main activity(Moi 203).
We can apply Moi’s theory to Wangero, who views the yard as a representation of “Dee,” her former self trapped on the outside of society—on the outskirts of individualism. In order for “Dee” to be representational in the everyday world, she needed to become Wangro—distancing herself from the yard, as best she could.
At last, it is Alice Walker’s use of objects that makes self-identity, with its strong feminist undertones, the prevailing theme of the story. When Wangero arrives she carries a Polaroid in her hand—and is a tourist to her family. Walker writes, “She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me” (Walker 2439). The lack of dialogue during these pictures suggests the lack of communication between mother and daughter. Wangero doesn’t bear gifts for her family, or even attempt a sign of affection with a hug or a kiss. We see Mrs. Johnson’s irritation at this in a stressed sounding line, “Then she puts the Polaroid in the back seat of the car, and comes up and kisses me on the forehead” (Walker 2439). In "Radical Feminism: A Documentary Reader," author Cellestine Ware makes an astute observation about black feminism in her essay, “The Relationship of Black Women to the Women’s Liberation Movement.” Ware writes, “Black society has patterned itself closely on white people, but since blackness connotes ugliness and evil to whites, black women have been despised as coarse and animal-like in their sensuality. They have been despised both by whites and by their own people” (Ware 98). Wangero’s initial intention with the Polaroid is to catalog her family. To show her family in their worst light, to promote her own superiority. This self-serving want fills the third characteristic in Joreen Freeman’s “The Bitch Manifesto,” for ‘bitches’ are “. . . independent cusses and believe they are capable of doing anything they damn well want to” (Freeman 227). There is no debate, to the mothers dissatisfaction with Dee’s new found identity, for in the end she doesn’t relinquish the quilt to Dee—the tourist. Thus, Mom theorizes Dee is acting like a ‘Bitch.’
The quilt is the most powerful symbol in the story in that it transcends time and place for the Johnson’s heritage. In her essay, "African-American Women Writers, Black Nationalism, and the Matrilineal Heritage," Joan S. Korenman writes,
We see further evidence of Dee's shallow trendiness in her desire for the hand stitched quilts. Whereas her sister Maggie wants the quilts because she was close to the grandmother and aunt who made them and who taught her the art of quilting, Dee covets them simply because such artifacts of the Southern black heritage are now in vogue (Korenman 2). The grandmother and aunt who made the quilts accomplished two goals: they created a work of art, and they created something used everyday. The patchwork of the quilts binds together all of the symbols used in the story by proclaiming to Dee that wisdom is something that cannot be taught in school.
In the end, the reader recognizes that Dee has forgotten her heritage and has lost her identity. When Dee made the decision to abandon her home and family, the result was a complete de-construction of her past. She did not appreciate that wisdom is a series of patches sewn throughout a lifetime, not to be suddenly unraveled and never pieced back together again. By noting different theorists like Foucalt, Moi, and Ware who have looked through a feminist lens, and by analyzing the text with its various symbols, we the reader can surmise that Dee can hide behind the trappings of everyday life—or she can put them to everyday use.
Works Cited
Freeman, Joreen. "The Bitch Manifesto." "Radical Feminism: A Documentary Reader." Ed. Barbara A. Crow. New York: New York University Press, 2000. 226-232.
McNay, Lois. "Foucault And Feminism: Power, Gender, and the Self." Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
Moi, Toril. "What is a Woman? And Other Essays." Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Korenman, Joan S. "African-American Women Writers, Black Nationalism, and the Matrilineal Heritage." CLA Journal 38.2 (Dec. 1994): 143. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Oviatt Library, Northridge, CA. 8 May. 2009
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” The Norton Anthology of AfricanAmerican Literature. 2nd ed. ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 2437-42.
Walker, Nancy A. Feminist Alternatives: Irony and Fantasy in the Contemporary Novel by Women. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990.
Ware, Cellestine. "The Relationship of Black Women to the Women's Liberation Movement." "Radical Feminism: A Documentary Reader." Ed. Barbara A. Crow. New York: New York University Press, 2000. 98-112.
Wilson, Charles E. ““Everyday Use” and “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”: Escaping Antebellum Confinement.” Southern Mothers: Fact and Fictions in Southern Women’s Writing. ed. Nagueyalti Warren and Sally Wolff. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1990. 169-81.
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