Contemporary Connections – Different Points of View

Alice Walker's short story, "Everyday Use," deals with the meaning of heritage. In the story, Dee sees her heritage as an ancient life and culture from Africa. She fails to recognize her heritage as her familial legacy. The objects Dee takes from the house are just artifacts to her. To Mama and Maggie, they embody personal memories and emotions, representing the family who made and used them.

For your application activity, you are going to make a contemporary spin on Walker's "Everyday Use" by telling the story of Dee's attempt to take the quilts from the point of view of one of the objects in the room. It can be one of the objects Dee was interested in taking (the quilts or the churn) or any item in the house. How would the object tell this story? How would the object view each character? How would the object "see" the situation? In other words, your object can side with Dee, with Maggie, with the mother, or take a completely different interpretation entirely.

You can choose to write a short story, a poem, or a song to relate the events of the dinner and Dee's collection of family objects. Just remember to write from the point of view of an object in the room, and stay true to the actual plot points of the original story. Before you begin, review the Contemporary Point of View Checklist to make sure that you include all of the items required for full credit.

Once you have completed your contemporary spin on this Postmodernist story, please submit your work to the dropbox.