Critical Analysis 7

“Everyday Use” and Langston Hughes

“Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walker about an African-American mother (Mrs. Johnson) and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. Maggie is an adult and moves out of her mother’s house because she despises their culture and heritage. She moves on to live a “white” life in the suburbs, only returning home when she needs something from her mother. Dee, on the other hand, is much younger than her sister and sees the beauty in her mother as a strong black woman and loves her heritage. The conflict ensues when Dee returns home to take a quilt which was passed down through their family for generations because she thinks the quilt makes a good decoration, whereas Maggie is the rightful heir and sees the quilt for all its history, beauty, and memories.

In Langston Hughes’ The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, he emphasizes that some African-Americans move away from their heritage and culture towards the white, American way of life. He claims “The whisper of ‘I want to be white’ runs silently through [African-Americans’] minds” (Hughes 1193). Similarly, Dee wishes the same idea and conforms to dress and behave like white women in her society. Dee is so engulfed in the idea of being white that she is embarrassed to visit her own mother and sister who have not conformed to her preferred lifestyle. Dee shows up to Mrs. Johnson’s home in a brand new car, straight hair (mimicking the hairstyle of white women), and a tight, colorful dress. Unlike Dee, Maggie is able to see the beauty in being African-American. Hughes emphasizes the point that “[An African-American] is never taught to see that beauty. He is taught rather not to see it, or if he does, to be ashamed of it when it is not according to Caucasian patterns” (1193).

The story concludes with the idea that African-American culture is a beautiful thing and that it is wrong for any other culture to imply otherwise. Unfortunately, there are still many people who are unable to see this about their own culture. Langston Hughes, being Caucasian himself, beautifully emphasizes this point when he says “Let the blare of Negro jazz bands and the bellowing voice of Bessie Smith singing Blue penetrate the closed ears of the colored near-intellectuals until they listen and perhaps understand” (1196).

Works Cited

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." 1926. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.
Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G.
Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 7th ed. Boston: Wordsworth. Print.