Family and Conflict in \"Everyday

Family and Conflict in "Everyday Use" and "Why I Live at the P.O."

Few subjects provide more fodder for characters and situations in fiction than families. The relationships, conflicts, influences, and understandings that exist among family members are almost universally recognized by readers, and they are also hugely influential in shaping the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of all individuals, including authors. It is little wonder, then, that families feature so heavily throughout literature. The African-American experience of the family is somewhat unique, but its prominent features still find common ground with readers of all cultural backgrounds. Two different examples of the African-American family in twentieth century short stories illustrate both the unique poignancy of the cultural background of the authors and characters, and the universal nature of family conflict.

The action of Alice Walker's story "Everyday Use" takes place in a single day, when Maggie and her mother, the narrator known alternatively as "Mama" and Mrs. Johnson, are waiting apprehensively for a visit from Mama's elder daughter (and Maggie's sister), Dee. Dee has a very different understanding of heritage and family than do Maggie and Mama, having taken an ancestral African name ("Wangero") and showing a marked condescension towards the lack of appreciation that Maggie and Mama show for a land they've never seen and a culture that isn't their own. The conflict in this story largely happens in the past, as mama recollects the difficulties Dee presented as a child; these difficulties obviously still exist even now that she is an adult, bt the true danger form the conflict has passed. There is a clear sense in this story that a permanent rift has been formed in this family.

The danger and heat of the conflict in Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O.," is very present in the action of the story and is even hinted at being present long after the action closes. Again, this conflict exists between two sisters, but in this story it is the sister that stays home that is treated as essentially unwelcome by her family, and the sister that returns home that is welcomed and praised despite the many issues that are apparent in her life. At its heart, however, this story is one of senseless bickering and the type of frustration that crops up during periods of familial unfairness. Neither sister makes a real effort to try and make the other happy, and the other family members are equally guilty of perpetuating a type of squabbling that has no real merit or purpose -- the arguments are over senseless things such as a beard being cut or not -- yet the rift that this creates in the family seems just as permanent as that which exists in Walker's short story. The narrator of Welty's tale is the "wronged" sister, who ultimately moves out of her family's home and into the post office where she works, but while the reader's sympathies stay with Mama and Maggie at the end of "Everyday Use," there isn't the same sense of completion and satisfaction at the end of "Why I Live at the P.O.." It is as if Welty is commenting on the depth of family emotions regardless of their root cause or the rationality of the disagreements.