Jake Marshall
English 1302-25
2-27-12

Jake Marshall
English 1302 – 25
27 February

Skewed Point of View
In Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” the point of view of the story is told through the eye's of Mama Johnson to help point out the struggle between the preservation of her heritage and the living of it. This limited omniscient point of view not only showcases Walker's ability to subliminally influence us to take sides for Mama and her youngest daughter Maggie, but to also show the inherent struggle between the families everyday perception of objects that Mama's oldest daughter Dee sees as something to be maintained and cherished for as along as possible. The point of view through Mama's eyes accentuates the innocent eye point of view by showing her naivety and simplicity to the outside world that Dee has always so thrived in and her lack of ability to understand old heirlooms that she would see preserved to keep the heritage alive she lives everyday.
Mama Johnson is first presented immediately as someone who can be trusted through her knowledge of things presented to her firstly by describing her misfortunate youngest daughter Maggie by saying “She is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by,” as well as stating she “was never a good singer” and “never could carry a tune” (Alice 163). These blunt observations helps the reader trust what Mama Johnson says because they are things personally significant to her and personal within her life and about her family. She does not sugar coat the truth or try to mask what is in front of her because she has no reason to hide what is her heritage because it is the life she lives everyday.
When Dee finally arrives she instantly begins taking snap shots of her former home. She pushes to preserve the heritage she left behind by taking these captured shots of a heritage fading away and by literally taking it back with her which is the case with the dasher and quilts. Dee eagerly attempts to take back with her things of past lineage stating “This churn is what I need” and wanting “the dasher too” (Walker 165). She does the same with the quilts “saying sweet as a bird 'Can I have these old quilts?'” in her hopeful delight of trying to preserve these relics that Mama Johnson and Maggie use for everyday use (Walker 165). However, Mama Johnson still reveres these things as something that should be put to use instead of put up for display by not allowing Dee to get the quilts but instead giving them to Maggie who would inevitably wear them down into uselessness eventually. This consistent struggle between preserving heritage and living it is made all the more evident through Mama Johnson's eyes by her lack of understanding in why Dee would want something she would never use and that “'her thin, scarred, pathetic daughter, who knows how to quilt and serves as her family's oral historian, deserves the quilts more than her shapely, favored, educated daughter Dee'” (Gruesser 185).
This struggle is the prevalent factor throughout Walker's short story. Dee is discouraged by her mothers lack of consideration for her own heritage and promptly leaves when she is refused the quilts so longed for. However “she never stops to consider that these pieces of art are also useful. They are valuable to Dee because they are old and vaguely connected with members of her family now dead and gone” (Winchell). These things are used as they live their heritage rather than idealize it because “even a churn handle, priceless because it bears the hand prints of generations of Johnsons, can still be used to make butter” (Winchell).
It is this simplicity that Mama Johnson identifies so easily with and what makes her such a good narrator for the story because she easily showcases the struggle between heritage and its everyday use to those who live it. It is these elements that help lead to a beautiful narrative through the eyes of someone so innocent. Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” exemplifies the balance between preservation for use and its eventual reclamation into history by others.

Works Cited
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Literature & the Writing Process. 9th ed. Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, et al. Boston: Longman; 2011. Print.
Walkers “Everyday Use.” The Riverside Anthology of Literature. 2nd Ed. Eds. Victor Bowman et al. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston: John Gruesser; 1991. Print.
Alice Walker. Donna Haisty Winchell. London: Prentice Hall. Incernational; 1992.