Analyze Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" from a feminist theory perspective.

Feminist theory is the study of women and their place within society. Here we look at it with regard to literature. Feminist theory looks at the way women have historically been treated by a male-dominated society, and their attempts to conquer such oppression.

In the 1970s, preconceived interpretations were questioned, as well as the world view of women, in literature:

Images of male-wrought representations of women (stereotypes and exclusions) came under fire, as was the 'division, oppression, inequality, [and] interiorized inferiority for women.'

Joyce Carol Oates was a leading figure in this movement, determining that a woman's place in literature "was culturally determined." Culture plays an important part in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." Feminist theory, according to social and cultural paradigms, is more central to the plot.

Dee and Maggie are sisters. Dee has left her poor home—built by the labor and resolve of many generations of women who have earned their freedom from slavery—to find her own kind of equality, both social and cultural. Dee ignores the sacrifices made for her—she has taken an African name (Wangero), and is with a man who sees the world as she does. She wishes only to celebrate her heritage before her ancestors arrived on American shores. Dee wants nothing to do with the connections and "shame" of the past, but she does want some pieces of her mother's that will "look good" in Dee's home.

First Dee wants the "dasher," used for butter-making. The history of the piece is meaningless to her; she doesn't think about the women whose hands have left their mark. Her mother remembers:

You didn't even have to look close to see where hands pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood...there were a lot of small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood.

Next, Dee wants the quilts that their mother and grandmother have made.

Out came Wangero with two quilts. They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt ftames on the front porch and quilted them.

Maggie, who has not lost sight of the strength of the line of women from whom she has descended, is incensed by her sister's demands. The quilts are truly Maggie's heritage, preserving ties to her grandmother, now dead.

Dee's assumes immediate "ownership" as her mother describes:

'Some of the pieces...come from old clothes her mother handed down to her,' I said, moving up to touch the quilts. Dee...moved back just enough so that I couldn't reach the quilts. They already belonged to her.

In studying Dee's behavior, we see that she looks for strength in the cultural past she chooses to acknowledge, not from the women who have forged a way for her. Maggie, who is still very much connected to the strong women of her line, shows feminine strength that is gleaned of a love and pride in the women she has come from. Her connection to the past is strong and honest, whereas Dee is still searching for a true sense of who she is.

Her mother says the quilts are for Maggie when she marries; Dee is sure she will ruin them them with everyday use, but it is Dee who misunderstands their value—while Maggie wants them to remain connected to her "line."

The quilts go to Maggie who will truly value the quilts for their history. Ironically, Dee tells her mother that she doesn't understand their heritage, when the opposite is true. Dee is the one who has set herself adrift.

How does "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker relate to 1970s feminist criticism?

"Everyday Use" is, perhaps, best understood through Walker's idea of Womanism. Walker developed the idea of "womanism" out of the Southern colloquialism of a black woman acting "womanish"—willful and outrageous. A womanist is a woman who loves other women—sexually or not sexually—and who is unabashed in her love for herself and her expression of her identity. In Walker's work, the character Shug Avery in The Color Purple could be characterized as a womanist.

In "Everyday Use," Dee, the narrator's daughter, renames herself "Wangero." She embraces the Afrocentric consciousness of the sixties and seventies, which inspires her renaming, as well as her clothing choices: "A dress down to the ground. . . . A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges. . . . Earrings gold too. . . .  Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves" 

Dee contrasts with her sister, Maggie, who is "homely" (or thinks she is) and "ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs." She thinks her sister has held always life in the palm of one hand; 'no' is a word the world never learned to say to her." Maggie seems defined by her perceived limitations: her awkwardness and thinner body, as well as the notion that her sister has "nicer hair and a fuller figure" and is "lighter than Maggie."

Dee (Wangero) has seemingly rejected the things that give her value in society. Her ability to find beauty and heritage in her mother's quilts is significant, but her appreciation of heritage does not create any desire in her to be more generous to her sister, who has been more forcefully impacted by racism and sexism than Dee. 

Dee, who is still discovering herself and her place in the world, has the external appearance of a womanist, but she lacks the consciousness exhibited by a character like Shug Avery, who is an exemplar of womanism due to her ability to acknowledge and express love to Celie, a woman Southern society has deemed insignificant. Maggie parallels Celie, not only in the ways in which she has been belittled, but, more importantly, in her ability to withstand abuses, including those inflicted by her sister.