Introduction
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker serves as a powerful story that delicately connects the concepts of cultural exploration and black womanhood, which is very complex. Published in 1973 as part of “In Love and Trouble: “The Story of Three Black Women,” the plot goes beyond a family quarrel over quilts to become a powerful narrative about identity, heritage preservation, and the conflict between tradition and modern life (Liao, 2020). We sift through the literary world that was created by Walker, trying to dissect the unique way the language, tone, and style are used. The narrative is woven in layers, creating a colorful picture through which the audience is allowed to encounter the multidimensionalities of the characters and their problems. The detailed analysis of layers of meaning in the text helps recognize the author’s storytelling abilities and the profound commentary on the subject’s struggles in 20th-century black women.
Background
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, published in 1973 within the anthology “In Love and Trouble: The movie, “The Women of the Harlem Renaissance,” is anchored in the issues about black women in the 20th century as society started to experience significant challenges. This heartrending portrayal dives deep into the complex constituents of identity, cultural legacy, and the conflict between tradition and modernity. The quilts, depicted as metaphoric and absolute stitches of the family, become an unifier. Walker moves artfully through the family quarrel concerning these quilts to a more global format, illuminating a much bigger picture reflecting the black female experience with a particular focus on discrimination, preservation of identity, and the changing part played by black women in the developing world. The readers are drawn into an Even though this story explores the subtle complexity of the issues involving women in society, the Black women are mainly in the historical period in which this story takes place.
Identifying Rhetorical Devices
Alice Walker effectively depicts the foremost ideas of the story with diverse rhetorical devices in “Everyday Use.” Imagery becomes alive when Walk displays color to draw many quilts. Every strand demonstrates the older part of the heritage of the black women. The quilts are more than just physical objects; they speak of the cultural heritage depicted figuratively by the tapestry. Every fiber is symbolic, too, and the quilts are seen as more than just pieces of fabric; they are the women’s black heritage and the ability to endure amid all the challenges. Walker incorporates many metaphors very well, almost describing the quilt as if it were a thread that joined the past, the present, and the future together. Again, This metaphor describes the invisible, but the long-lasting bonds link the black women together. Walker, on the other hand, uses exaggeration to prove that it is not the articles of the black women’s collective memory but her identity.
Analyzing Tone and Style
In the text “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker employs a colloquial approach that transcends the borders between the author and the reader to create a feeling of intimacy. The deliberate selection allows the audience to be part of the intricacies of the characters’ lives, leading to a high sense of relatability.
The author’s writing style is distinguishable through its clarity, and the readers are presented with crisp descriptions that help them visualize both the setting and the characters. While this simplicity does not weaken the story’s complexity, it becomes a solid means for inviting the readers to establish a more intimate connection with the text. The dialogical setting and the clear and accessible style make “Everyday Use” so striking, and that also helps the reader to realize how the narrative transcends cultural and social issues (Liao, 2020).
Imagery and Symbolism
Through the introduction of colorful description and symbolism, especially in the portrayal of quilts, the text of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” demonstrates her masterful storytelling abilities. The vividness of the expression, exemplified by words like “scraps of dresses that Grandma Dee had worn fifty or more years ago,” goes beyond just describing things; it is an important bond that connects the quilts with the family’s past. The remains of the past are transformed into living things that carry the stories of the family. Through the writer’s deliberate selection of imagery, heritage is animated, standing as not a static relic but a livelier part of everyday life. As the author pieced together the scraps of her dresses and the familial memories, she depicts how heritage is interwoven in people’s daily routines, sparking a greater understanding of the characters’ link to their ancestry.
Metaphor and Tradition
The “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker skillfully uses the quilts to symbolize traditions, thereby depicting a deep conflict within the story. The quilts, heavy with the history of Grandma Dee’s dresses and the fabrics left behind by the Civil War era, signify a living link to the past. The pivotal clash is between Dee’s desire to use them as a wall decoration and Maggie’s principles of regular use, a metaphor for two groups of black communities. The aestheticized presentation of Dee reflects a withdrawal from the natural, connective, everyday experiences in the quilts. Maggie’s perspective solemnizes the core message of “Everyday Use,” highlighting the significance of blending the legacy into everyday lifestyle. This metaphorical tension mirrors the broader societal discussions in the African American community, which interrogates the most accurate and vital way to maintain and express cultural roots (Liao, 2020).
Conversational Tone and Intimacy
Walker’s conversational tone in “Everyday Use” catapults the story from ordinary storytelling to a more immersive experience. The story is developed through a communicative dialogue, inviting the readers to participate actively in the characters’ lives. This decision powerfully creates an intimacy where the story’s emotional power is felt. Using comprehensible language that lacks pretentiousness, the author removes the barriers between her and the reader and makes the text personal (Jones et al., 2021). The apparent simplicity of the language functions as an effective device that conceals some of the deeper themes held within the narrative. In addition to being appealing to readers in general, this plain style facilitates a solid and intimate bond between readers and characters, thereby making the investigation of cultural inheritance and identity even more interesting and close (Liao, 2020).
Characterization and Rhetorical Appeals
In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the three female characters—Mother, Dee, and Maggie—whose characterization is used as a convincing strategy. Each character’s different opinions of culture reflect the multiple views present within black society (Yang, 2021). Through Mother, Walker creates ethos through authenticity and the use of lived experience to increase the narrative’s credibility. Dee represents more of a modern and aloof posture and, as such, comes into play in the pathos, invoking the readers’ emotions as they engage in the clash between tradition and contemporary values. Maggie, who is humble and attached to her ancestral heritage, represents logos that appeal to the reader’s ability to make logic and understand the importance of cultural preservation. The characters’ conscious use of ethos, pathos, and logos strengthens the rhetorical value of “Everyday Use.” As such, it becomes a relatable presentation of the myriad dynamics within black female experiences and culture (Jones et al., 2021).
Conclusion
To sum up, the “Everyday Use” literary analysis by Alice Walker elaborates on how she handled rhetoric to make the issues she intended to address very clear. Walker’s intentional employment of language, tone, and style functions as a pronounced medium, creating an incisive commentary on cultural heritage and identity among the black community. Implementing numerous rhetorical techniques, including symbolism and metaphor, raises the level of the narrative, motivating the readers to delve deeper into the subtle layers of meaning. Using a conversational tone and a simple style makes the story accessible and builds a connection between the listeners and the characters. In this way, this narrative not only reveals Walker’s mastery of storytelling but also highlights the broader implications of her choices of rhetoric, which create a story in which the audience intellectually and emotionally connects with a large readership.
References
Yang, X. (2021, March). Study on Black Woman Spirituality in Alice Walker’s Everyday Use. In 2020 International Conference on Language, Communication and Culture Studies (ICLCCS 2020) (pp. 363-368). Atlantis Press. https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/iclccs-20/125954136
Liao, K. Y. H., Wei, M., & Yin, M. (2020). The misunderstood schema of the strong Black woman: Exploring its mental health consequences and coping responses among African American women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 44(1), 84-104. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0361684319883198
Jones, M. K., Hill-Jarrett, T. G., Latimer, K., Reynolds, A., Garrett, N., Harris, I., … & Jones, A. (2021). The role of coping in the relationship between endorsement of the strong Black woman schema and depressive symptoms among Black women. Journal of Black Psychology, 47(7), 578–592. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00957984211021229
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