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“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is set in the period immediately following the Civil Rights Movement, between the mid-60s and early 70s—a time when many African Americans were reclaiming their political, cultural, and social identities. This reflection unpacks how historical context, setting, and regionalism reveal deeper tensions around heritage and identity. If you’re curious about how stories like this continue to shape cultural narratives, explore our Arts & Culture section for more insights.
The plot centers around a conflict between two interpretations of Black culture. This clash unfolds when Dee, the first in her family to receive formal education, returns to her rural home to visit her mother and sister. Dee’s education has deeply altered her worldview and distanced her from her family. This is evident when her mother observes, “She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice.”
The story’s central theme is the meaning of heritage. Dee, now calling herself Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, seeks to reconnect with her African roots. She changes her name because she believes it came from her oppressors. However, in her attempt to reclaim an African identity, Dee disconnects from the heritage she shares with her family. Her name change, clothes, and jewelry are symbolic, but lack true depth—her connection to Africa is largely surface-level. She perceives her actual heritage as something outdated, something to rise above. This is especially apparent in her view of the family quilts as artifacts for display rather than practical objects meant to be used.
The setting plays a crucial role in revealing the story’s conflicts and themes. Mrs. Johnson describes her yard as an “extended living room” with a floor of “hard clay and sand,” suggesting poverty. The time period is hinted at through Dee’s statement to her sister: “It’s really a new day for us. But from the way that you and Mama still live, you’d never know it.” Additionally, Dee’s companion greets them with “Asalamalakim,” the customary salutation among members of the Nation of Islam—a movement that blended Islamic beliefs with Black nationalist ideals in the 1960s.
Regionalism, a literary device that portrays the traits of a specific area—including its characters, customs, and history—is vividly present. The story is set in rural Georgia, inferred from the fact that Dee attends school in Augusta. Mrs. Johnson and Maggie live a humble life in a house without glass windows, described as having walls “like the portholes in a ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding shutters up on the outside.” Mrs. Johnson identifies herself as a “large, big-boned woman with large man-working hands” who can “kill a hog as mercilessly as a man,” embodying the toughness and resourcefulness of rural life. She also subtly references the region’s racial history when she says she speaks to white people “with one foot raised in flight, with my head turned in whichever way is furthest from them.”
In conclusion, the Civil Rights Movement serves as the historical backdrop that shapes both the plot and the theme of this story. The narrative explores heritage not as a fashion statement, but as a lived experience—one that Dee chooses to replace with a romanticized version of Africa.Ultimately, “Everyday Use” invites us to reflect on heritage not as an aesthetic, but as something embodied and generational. In a world where cultural reclamation can sometimes blur into reinvention, Walker challenges us to ask: what does it really mean to “own” our history?
