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"Everyday Use"

BARBARA T. CHRISTIAN (ESSAY DATE 1994)

SOURCE: Christian, Barbara T. Introduction to “Everyday Use”: Alice Walker, edited by Barbara T. Christian, pp. 3-17. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

In the following essay, Christian investigates Walker’s use of the quilt metaphor in her fiction—especially in Walker’s story “Everyday Use”—and underscores the role of quilting in African American literature and African women’s culture.

Although Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use ” was published in 1973, in the early phase of her writing career, it is a cornerstone in her large and distinguished opus—one that consists, to date, of five novels, five volumes of poetry, two essay collections, two children’s books, and two short-story collections. For it is in this story and in her classic essay “In Search of Our...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
4. General Commentary
   1. Ruth D. Weston (Essay Date Spring-Summer 1992)
   2. Keith Byerman (Essay Date 2000)
5. Title Commentary
   1. "Everyday Use"
   2. The Color Purple
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright

1. Feminism
2. Alice Walker