Wendy Sanchez Avila
Book Review: “Everyday Use”
People around the world have a history behind them that not only started their family line, but has been through centuries. An individual can have memories, but what about the future family line? There can always be that item which has been passed down that shows a representation of a part in one’s life. This is what the story by Alice Walker “Everyday Use” is about; strong characters and culture remembrance.
In the story we have the three main characters, being Dee, her mother and her sister Maggie. The conflict between them was about the centuries old quilt that was passed down through generations.  The quilt was to be reused as to what Maggie wanted, but Dee disagreed and wanted to preserve the quilt because it showed how much hard work and dedication her grandmother had put into sewing every piece of fabric into the quilt. All Dee wanted was to preserve her culture and history; she wanted this so bad that she argued with her mother and sister while giving those stares full of frustration and anger.
Now Dee didn’t really see things clear   the beginning of the story, she just wanted to get away from the old ways of living life in her home.  A quote she said was “I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppressed me” causing her to make the decision to change her name to Wangero. Now, once she starts eating at dinner time and feeling the chair she’s sitting on she realizes that there is a story to every simple item that her Mama had kept from generations past.  The idea to see that even Wangero (Dee) being a negative person at the beginning to changing her thoughts about her history show me that sometimes what we see as a piece of garbage can be worth much more, because of all the stories the item has in which it can affect our history as an individual. This is exactly what Alice Walker wanted her message to be, that a simple item that has been passed down through generations can be worth so much more because of what they have passed through in our family lines life and not for how new or beautiful, it is.
The author Alice Walker gives such a great characterization towards Dee in this way and becomes pretty clear what she wants the reader to know.  For example, she gives the scene where Wangero (Dee) starts to argue about Maggie keeping the quilt. The author first says what Dee thought about the quilts the first time her mother offered her one, being “Those quilts are old-fashioned and out of style” to later arguing about keeping them and saying “You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts!” while she was looking at her mother with hatred.  By using this dialogue and description of Dee's values of the quilts, the Author creates the character of Dee as such a secure and persistent person until she had what she wanted.
This leads on to what I believe is the best part. Dee was a simple girl who would argue so much about her history and decided to go away for a period of time. Once she was back she had learned or realized that it’s not bad for her to be proud of where she came from and who she really was. A wonderful theme that shows how people as individuals should not show embarrassment but instead cherish their history and culture was what made this book so great.
Overall, this story has an impact towards the entire world because we all have a background that comes from far back in time.  Now, we all have a mistake in our life today that we've learned from because even when we felt shame or embarrassment we know that it made a change/effect to our life today.  Alice Walker gives a great message about keeping our history and culture before us and cherishing the value.