Smile

“Smile”

In the short story, Everyday Use” the author Alice Walker uses symbolism to convey a message to her readers. A symbol is “something that stands for or represents something else, especially an object used to represent something abstract.” (Handout) Many different heritages’ have material things passed through their family from generation to generation. Many people show appreciation for things in different ways, and there are people in each family who do not appreciate the items of their heritage at all. Alice Walker uses her own feelings about her heritage throughout the story.

“Everyday Use” begins with Momma Johnson and her daughter Maggie, waiting at home for a visit from her oldest daughter Dee. Dee went away to school with the money Momma and the church raised. Momma and Maggie on the other hand, have never left home. Their first home burned down to the ground ten to twelve years earlier. From that fire, Maggie was severely burned and it has made her very shy and ashamed of the scars it left. She has lived her life envying her older sister Dee’s beauty. They had built a new house that looked just like the one that burned. The house was on a pasture and had three rooms. The house didn’t have any windows, there were just holes cut out of the walls with shutters on the outside. The house is a symbol of the fact that they are a poor family.

When Dee arrives, momma knows it is Dee from her feet. She says, “Her feet were always neat-looking, as if God himself had shaped them with a certain style.” (Walker 72) Under her breath, momma heard Maggie say, “Uhnnnh”. Maggie hasn’t seen her sister in a while, and her feelings of shame about herself possibly arise again when she see’s how beautiful her sister looks. Dee’s wearing a long dress, with bright colors, gold earrings, and brackets that make noise as she moves.

As they begin to converse, it comes out that Dee had changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Momma, who is obviously hurt and confused as to why she has changed her name, tells her of how her name is a part of their family. The name has been used for several generations, and she should be proud of it. Dee, Wangero, didn’t like the name because she, “Couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me”. (Walker 73) We already have noticed that Dee has turned her back on her heritage. She doesn’t want anything to do with it, but she wants the material things to take with her to show them all off to her friends where she lives now.

Wangero noticed several things in the house that she wanted to take with her. The first item she mentioned was her Grandma Dee’s butter dish. She then went to the other side of the room and pointed out how, “This churn top is what I need, Didn’t Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all used to have?” (Walker 74) The butter dish and the churn top are items, passed through the

family, a special part of the family’s history. And Wangero wants to take them with her. The churn top is a symbol of momma’s

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