Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” short story is tightly woven and reinforces the W.E.B. thesis. DuBois argues that black Americans live in a dual consciousness, with their African heritage and American citizenship. Walker’s story focuses on the conflict between a mother/daughter, America and Africa and the battle for one identity. Walker adds symbolism to her story, besides the obvious confusion in Dee/Wangero’s identity, which points out the common confusion in African identity.
DuBois compares black America’s experience to trying to make a single consciousness from a plurality of perspectives. DuBois wrote that one can feel his twoness…two conflicting ideals in one body (564). Walker’s tale is about the struggle for identity. She even goes as far as to explain the symbolism in the items Dee wants. Dee desires the butter-churn urgently and asks Uncle Buddy to make it. This is a sign of DuBois’s striving for a soul. The importance of this churn goes far beyond its natural form. A butter churn was created from the wood, which was an in-and-of itself valuable and important tool. It takes milk and turns it into butter. DuBois talks about merging without losing its essence (565) and the butter-churn is as much a symbol of that striving than any other item in the house. What is butter? Is it butter or milk? What does it mean to be an African-American? Are they African-Americans or American? Is he both American and African? What is butter? Walker refuses to play up the symbol of merging identity that comes from a mechanism, but she does not want to. Dee, however, decides to take the churntop and give it another identity. Dee could see turning the churntop into a focal point as an emancipation. In other words, the churn does not have to be functional. It can become ornamental. The churn makes one thing another, as slavery did for Africans. Walker goes beyond that. Her symbolism is not limited to the main object of the story. Dee really wants the quilts of her grandmother, which are quilts her mother promised Maggie. These quilts, while more visible than the traditional churn, can be equally symbolic of identity. A quilt is by nature a dual consciousness. Dee is specifically looking for a quilt made of pieces from her grandmother’s dresses. Like the butter creamer, the quilt is utilitarian. The quilt, however, is not like the butter churn in that the fabric is made from pre-existing utilitarian tools — the dresses. It is not something new or independent. Dee does not want quilts for their intended purposes. Dee again desires to use a quilt that serves a purpose and make it an ornamental piece. DuBois is proud of Dee’s determination to make simple tools more useful. DuBois says that prejudice can lead to self-abasement among black people. (567) To combat self-abasement, one can aspire towards culture. Dee regards herself as cultural, beyond the superficiality of her mother’s and sister’s lives. Maggie would not have the nerve to use the quilts for warmth. Dee understands the true worth and quality of quilts. They will be hung on the wall by Dee. In high culture, it is an ultimate achievement to take something that serves a purpose or has a useful purpose and use it in another way. Dee sees quilts as her way of expressing her independence. They are even more valuable because they were once part of a dress that was worn as the first line for defense. Walker’s selections are a reminder of the symbolism behind warring identities.
Dee is more prominent than the symbolism surrounding the items Dee needs to reference DuBois’ theory regarding double consciousness among black Americans. Dee is in many ways a less fully realized character than Dee herself.
Dee is at war with her mother, her culture, and herself. DuBois addresses schizophrenia, at most tangentially. He writes about “the idea fostering and developing the traits, talents, and abilities of the Negro” and how this is done, although Dee has never been able to do so. Dee clearly has contempt for her mother, sister, and entire life. Dee clearly shows contempt for her mother, sister and their entire way of life. Dee claims her family doesn’t understand their heritage. In fact, she returns home to retrieve cultural artifacts that she believes represent her heritage. Her designs and intentions are far from respectful to her heritage. Dee wants them to be displayed in a manner that isn’t too different from white capitalists cashing in ethnic artworks. Although Dee’s name has been changed to sound more African, she is actually more Americanized than her family. Mother and Maggie honor their heritage by using the objects made from old clothes as comforters or blankets. Everything was made to serve a purpose because it was necessary. Either you made the quilt out of your old clothes, or you frozen it. This is heritage. American waste is the most obvious example of American waste. Dee might be Wangero, but it is just as possible that she could have changed to JC Pennney. Dee has embraced the American Republic’s better ideals, even though she is adamant about her race. Dee is not able to find an individual self-consciousness that integrates both her African and American aspects. Instead she has just traded her African in for her American. DuBois wrote that blacks live a life in the revelation of “the other world”, and Dee is living exactly this way throughout the story. Dee is able to attain consciousness only when she compares herself against Hakim, a barber or what her family is. The story is clear that Dee continues to wage the war on the two in order to create a singular consciousness. Dee’s attempt to recover the heritage items she holds dear can be understood as an unconscious desire in her subconscious to heal the divide in her mind. She may have initially intended to convert the churntop or the quilt into high-cultural artifacts. However she might also subconsciously be trying to make sense of the fact her consciousness is not the singularity DuBois describes.
Walker employs both symbolism and character to show a common vision of America’s struggle for identity. People from Africa were brought to America by slavery. They became capitalists and have struggled ever since to find a new identity that blends their heritage and their new country. The problem has been made worse by the fact they have been told to do more than they can. Walker uses symbolism to highlight this problem by using everyday objects for everyday use.
