Everyday Use and Why I

Everyday Use and Why I live at the P.O.

Eudora Welty's story "Why I Live at the P.O." And Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" both employ an informal first person style with rich and realistic detail in order to create a vivid impression of the setting and characters in the mind of the reader. Common settings and family dynamics also unite the two works. Despite their similarities, though, "Everyday Use" is more serious in tone and subject, and it is much easier for the reader to take sides.

Both stories have many details of plot and situation in common. A sister who has gone away to "make it" in the world returns to the family dwelling and sibling rivalry ensues. Walker's story is a very serious depiction of a household where the values of the characters have taken different directions. The returning sister who hates her familial name Dee returns with the intention of turning her childhood into a display of art. Walker reveals Dee's character as she selects household items without the input or consent of her passive mother and sister. Mama and Maggie, the sister who remains at home, are treated as if they were caricatures instead of real people who put the quilts and churn-dashes to everyday use. Welty's story also involves a sister who sweeps home, but the circumstances differ. This sister Stella-Rondo, has left her husband and returned with a child of dubious origin. The narrator and her prodigal sister have an immediate conflict that forces the rest of the family to choose sides. Instead of being a serious conflict about cherished items that represent the family's history, the conflict involves a childish verbal argument. Welty reveals Stella-Rondo's character by her ruthless division of the household along emotional lines. The tone and style of the division, though, is less serious than Walker's almost elegiac reminiscence about the family history.

The informal style in both stories is marked by the fact that the authors directly address the reader. Walker draws the reader in by suggesting that "you've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has 'made it' is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage" (819). Mama, the narrator of "Everyday Use," pictures such a reunion briefly between herself and her visiting daughter, but realism wins out and she describes herself and her situation as it really is. She explains that "in real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man" (820). Such realism in her tone disallows any fairytale notions about the visit from the older daughter. When backed into a showdown between her two daughters over the ownership of a family heirloom quilt, she feels inspired to make the right decision and explains, "When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout" (826). Her action in siding with the shy Maggie solidifies the author's point that setting and objects within it are a deeply ingrained part of the characters and cannot mean the same gracing an entry table in a strange house far away.

The mother character in Welty's story is also realistically described. The daughter-narrator invites the reader to picture her mother by saying, "you ought to see Mama, she weighs two hundred pounds and has real tiny feet." While the mother in Walker's story is no fool, the mother in Welty's story is less certain. The arguments between the characters are based on obvious falsehoods and choosing sides is a matter of deciding who is lying and who started the arguments. The solid fact that Sister has remained a fixture in the house and should have the greater claim to her mother's attention is dazzled away by the return of Stella-Rondo. The mother's indecision and vacillation is somewhat comic as she continues to insist that "I prefer to take my children's word for anything when it's humanly possible" (5). Deciding which child to believe is her character's conflict. Because Welty portrays her as a weak character who would rather slap her daughter than hear the truth, it is not a surprise that she takes the path of least resistance and sides with the flashy Stella-Rondo. Her vain foolishness provides a sardonic comedy that colors the tone of the story.

An important difference in the styles of both stories is that they exist for different purposes. Alice Walker's story makes an argument for things to remain the same in the lives and setting of the characters. Her depiction of Dee as a clear outsider who had always hated the family home reinforces the strength with which the other characters are willing to love and defend their heritage. While Dee had laughed as the old house had burned, Maggie was literally scarred by the event. The situation of the story involving the visit and rejection of Dee underscores the author's purpose. Having Maggie find a real smile because Dee is leaving in a huff allows Mama a happy ending where "the two of us sat there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed" (826). Contentment in their setting and the certainty that Maggie and Mama have the correct appreciation of everyday objects colors the tone and directs the style of the whole story.