"Everyday Use" with "The Lottery"

Mother and daughter relationships are always hard to maintain. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use", the mother tells her story of her two diverse daughters. She describes the difference of Dee, the older daughter in collge and Maggie, the daughter who is still living in the "nest". She tells the story of her two daughteres while waiting for Dee's arrival from college. She describes how different they are and in their story telling, you can tell their differences. Dee has broken away from her family and has adopted a life on her own, even having a boyfriend by the name of Hakeem-a-barber and changing her name to Wangero, even though she was named after her Aunt Dee. Dee forgot about her heritage and wants the family quilts for the having it as part of the trend. Maggie wants the quilts because she treasures the quilts as something that is part of her and makes her who she is. The quilts are clothes of the women in her family and have been sown together. Maggie sees it as part of her and her family and sees it as something sacred. Mama sees that is is part of her hertitage as well and wants the quilts to belong to her daugthers, that she loves so much. But she would want the quilts to belong to one person that would treasure and value the quilts as much as she did and the rest of her ancestors did. Alice Walker illustrates the differing views and wants the audience to see how much the quit means and how much heritage and family should mean to an individual whether they have "left the nest" or not. Alice Walker wants the audience to side with Maggie and Mama as the two value their family and the family heirloom that Dee (Wangero) only sees as a fashion statement or a new trend in her generation. The title, "Everyday Use", is significant to the story as to how the quilts are seen for the characters and how Alice Walker wants the audience to see it as well. The quilts are seen as an item for "everyday use" but the use and value of it is different for the differing sisters. To maggie, she values the quilt as an "everyday use" because to her it represents her family and who she is and so it is used as an everyday heirloom to remind her where she came from and who she is. To Dee (Wnagero), she uses it on an  "everyday use" because she uses it as fashion trend. It is a trend in her collge and her generation of having african clothes or items and to her she will use it everyday to be part of the generation and to be popular. To Mama she uses everyday as comfort and for something to remind her as well as to where she came from.  Alice Walker uses the title "everyday use" as a double meaning. An item can be on item but it can mean so many things and can be used for so many things. A quilt is a quilt but it has so many more meanings. It can just be a quilt for comfort, it can be a ratty old thing, it can be used for a fashion statement or a family heirloom. Alice Walker is demonstrating the meaning of what an item can mean to someone and how meanings can change by differing people, time, and how people change views and lifestyles.  What was ironic about the story is how Dee changed her name to Wangero, a name that may be embraced in the Islam and African World. Dee is not embracing where she truly comes from by changing her name to a name that she was named after her Aunt. What is ironic is that she chooses a name that may be related to her family's heritage. She neglects her beautiful name and family for one that she ignorant of. The story is told in a beautiful way through the eyes of the mother of the two sisters. If the story was told by Maggie, it would be told with a sense of jealousy and anger towards her sister but with so much passion for her family and her heritage. If Dee were to tell the story, the story would be seen completely different, while we see what most of our generation sees. We see fashion trends but not family. We would see what we all have adopted to and we would never see the signifance of an "everyday use" of a quilt, that means so much more than just a quilt. It's family. It is heritage.

    "The Lottery" comes across as a short story and starts off in a warm bright setting. Shirley Jackson truly made a set up for her audience to see the perfect twist of her story at the end, one that no one will ever expect. The story starts of as a small town is gathering for the lottery and the lottery is scene as a spectacle that no one should miss. It seems like the lottery is like winning the lottery of our time and day, of winning money. But it's not. Instead, Shirley Jackson willl shows lottery as a different way, than money. She illustrates that the lottery is greed and that in the end it can kill you. The lottery for the town is stoning the person that wins. In reality, the person who wins it all, looses it all and in the story it is one's life. People want to win even for the worse reason. People believe that in winning, they can wiin it all, but Jackson's message is that winning it all is winning nothing at all because in the end, they win nothing.