This document provides an analysis of the short stories "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. Both stories explore the theme of tradition versus modernity and the impact of changes in society. In "Everyday Use," the character Dee seems to embrace her African heritage but rejects key aspects of her upbringing. The story also contrasts rural and urban identities. Similarly, "A Rose for Emily" features the character Emily who clings to traditions of the past despite changes in her town. The document analyzes how both stories examine the significance of cultural heritage and tensions that arise when traditions face modern influences.

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Common Themes and Messages in “Everyday Use and A Rose for Emily”
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“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker focuses on the African consciousness in regard to their
cultural heritage. It also deal with isse of identity and ownership of certain values and norms.
The two text explore tradition and it impact on daily life. “Everyday Use” highlight the
significance of cultural heritage especially if certain change are brought upon it. Walker create
world full of common character through symbolism to evoke sense of realism and significance of
embracing culture despite urbanization that dispense change upon tradition. In “A Rose for
Emily” by William Faulkner, the author presents the struggle of maintaining traditions in the
face of widespread and radical change. In the story, Jefferson is presented as maintaining a future
while still glued to the past. Emily is also shown as traditional character who is maintaining her
traditional heritage despite many changes in her community. Both “A Rose for Emily” by
William Faulkner and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker focus on the tradition heritage and the
impact of modernity on heritage.
Everyday use focuses on African American Consciousness, particularly to the Black
consciousness Movement of 1973. While Dee appears to be embracing her African

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consciousness and roots in African, she somehow distances herself from upbringing and family
who are rooted to Africa heritage. As such, the strained relationship between Dee, Mama and
Maggie portrays the divide between urban and rural African. According to Dee, her education
guarantee her the right to own the family quits, however, Maggie’s receive the quits from Mama
because she maintaining a more authentic connection to the family quilts. When Dee and Hakim
came from the car, they adored themselves in attire that indicated African identity. Dee loud
orange dress and hakims bars afro hair were indication of the movement which encouraged
Blacks t adhere to their hair in natural or afro style. However, for Magi end Mama, they appeared
foreign and to appears to mama as those who are using their bodies as marker of transgression
from Whiteman’s standard of beauty and decorum. Despite the black consciousness being a a
movement o that embrace African identity and urge to connect Blacks to the African inn
diaspora, the author attempts to complicate the modest message by making Dee exemplary of it.
As, the story provide information about Dee that she is someone who has always prioritize
fashion.
Maggie and Mama never knew what fashion is as such, Dee sense of fashion is uniquely
her own. Dee appears too fascinated at Mamas rustic object as though she is looking at them for
the fits time. The dish, bench and church have always been there but her embrace of African
consciousness suddenly turns them into object of interest. While Dee appears to embrace her
African consciousness, she also reject her African name that was passed to her through her
matrilineal line. She insist of her mother’s patchwork quilts when mama wanted to give her
before going to college. Dee also refer to the quilts as old fashions. These appears to suggest that
the irony in Dee’s embrace of African consciousness is her lack of knowledge about it. Her
education makes her cats herself as superior to both Mama and Maggie thereby reinforcing a

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class hierarchy. She oppose the life style in the rural yet she is appearing to connect to her
enslaved African ancestors. She suggest that she reject her key aspect of what he r Black
consciousness should entail.
Also, “Everyday Use” explore the issue of rural versus urban identity. As such, the story
portrays Mama and Maggie to living in room without windows. The livestock are maintain in the
house, their “yard is like extended living room” suggesting there is little delineation between
outdoor and indoor space. Mama explains that she “can work outside all day”, cook port over
the open fire after killing (Walker 2). In this sense, Mama reiterate her resourcefulness and
independence without bragging. As such, Mama and Maggie are established as perfect depiction
of rural lifestyle. However, for Dee rural life style is both backward and quant. While object like
churns and Quilt are common object used by Mama and Dee for daily use, for Dee, these object
are antiques for display. This is an indicated that Black people who moved to city are somehow
disconnected to the African roots and developed a different kind of space for themselves. While
the eras in Mama and Maggie compound as much as the house, for Dee, her focus is in the
interior. Walker shows in her ‘everyday use” that extreme unban city disconnect from rural life
and thus signify division among urban and rural Blacks.
Just like Alice walker, William Faulkner follows the same path in addressing the power
of tradition in the eyes of a character Emily. Emily represents a monument of the past events and
things of the past. She is a symbol of how things used to be before change came and overtook
tradition since from the way she used to behave when she was still alive it was as though nothing
had changed. To begin with her house, Emily kept a black servant who was her sole confidant
and had a few selected visitors visiting her soiled home that had decayed over the years because
she did not want to embrace the modern types of furnishings. In the community it was her house

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that remained amongst the august group that once ruled the town. People in the town have
shifted and embraced modernity and change but for Emily change was evitable despite the
community’s indulgent with her several times. Emily got stuck in her past traditions to the extent
of refusing to pay tax in Jefferson, an idea that she considers to be imaginary. She suggests to the
people to ignore the ruling of the current sheriff and consider referring to the ruling of Colonel
Sartoris who has been dead nearly a decade. She takes pride in living in the past regardless of the
changing times and no one dares to correct her way of living “When the next generation, with its
more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little
dissatisfaction” (Faulkner 1). The people in Jefferson have allowed the old South to continue
living in the form of Emily and have further referred her as a monument of tradition even after
her death.
Conclusively, both Walker in her “Everyday Use” and Faulkner in her “Rose for Emily”
focus on the significance of upholding traditional heritage. However for these authors, cultural
heritage that was once deemed beautiful is faced with change in modernity. Characters such as
Mama and Maggie in Everyday Use best exemplify the notion of upholding tradition against the
preconceived notions of characters like Dee who think that their self-consciousness of African
tradition is engrained in the white man’s education. Similarly, in Faulkner’s “Rose for Emily”,
the character Emily in her conception of tradition, highlights the importance of heritage against
the interference of modernity.

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Works Cited
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily”. (1930). P.1. Retrieved from:
https://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/wf_rose.html
Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. Harper Magazine. (2021), p.2. Retrieved from:
https://harpers.org/archive/1973/04/everyday-use/