Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is read worldwide and people have concluded that the main aim of the story was to define an identity. Alice Walker argued on a number of points in which the most prominent one is the problem for the individuals to hold onto the personnel identities instead of losing them according to the standards made by the society. There are a number of other things which are included in the story and explains the core importance of the family and unity. The main aim of the paper is to discuss the core values of the story which Alice walker indirectly tried to convey to the reader with the help of narrations and examples.
In the initial phase of the story the author explained Dee’s community deficiency towards her family and the core values in the Saint Leo University’s code of conduct are that belonging, interdependence as well as Unity which are based on the mutual trust as well as respect to create some collective environment to engage others to listen, learn, serve and change respectively. Discussing this fact, the author tried to explain that Dee have lost her identity through which she was identified, which is her family (Walker, 2004). According to the perspective of the writer, it can be explained that Dee refused to be called by the name which her mother gave her since she was born. Dee’s grandmother is also mentioned and the art she had of quilting the quits which are amazing art pieces and could be hanged on the walls. Dee had a negative remark when discussion was about the quilt as a heir looms and she straight forward answered that she didn’t even remembered her grandmother so give these things away or hang them up.
The author also expressed the overall personnel development of every family member individually. The most prominent quotes explained that the family was highly effected by the house fires. Maggie, the youngest member of Dee’s family burns his arm and mother says that she would never let her be beautiful as Dee. Dee used her beauty as well as intelligence for the preeminence but Dee’s mother was expressed against her (Walker, 2004). The mother was a good character and she didn’t thought too higher of herself in the story. All the characters used accurately their resources for the personnel development which is narrated by the author in an extra ordinary way.
In the end, Alice Walker addressed the unity found in the family. Walker gave a lot many examples in which he tried to express his point that Dee had not integrity among the family and didn’t showed equality but most of the time superiority. Her views towards the quilt as well as the heir looms is just an art and nothing else but in real they are the most precious items in a family and are protected from generations to generations to keep the identity. There is another point which is deficient in Dee but was seen in other family members. It was the honesty and it helps the family to be united and would have integrity. Dee was presented as nether honest not identity keeper (Walker, 2004).
In a nutshell it can be concluded that the core values discussed in the story presented by Alice walker are the family integrity, personal development and the identity keeping. Dee didn’t showed positivity towards any of the family positive approach. The author presented Dee as a character who have lack of community, lack of integrity and overall personal development problem. The person’s heritage makes the memories alive for centuries and the person is reminded for centuries due to these heritages.
References
Walker, A. (2004). In search of our mothers’ gardens: Womanist prose. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
