Alice Walker

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The African American writer, Alice Walker, expresses her thoughts of how black women struggle to look toward the future and back at the past in the short story collection In Love and Trouble. Walker discusses the connections blacks’ history, their present moment in time, and their future lives have among one another in, “Everyday Use”, “Strong Horse Tea”, and “To Hell with Dying”. Walker’s theme throughout these works is how the individual values black women put on their ancestors’ traditions and heritage effects their decisions in the present. The dramatic transformation of the treatment of African Americans in the 100s triggers the importance of the women’s choices and the further development of their history.

Walker shows how the difference in values of ancestry effects the decisions of the black women in “Everyday Use”. The educated daughter of the Johnson family, Dee, returns home newly named Wangero and claims she now possesses value for African heritage. The mother destines to give Maggie, the second, homely daughter who has carried on the grandmother’s skill of quilting, the prized family quilts. The quilts are crafted of clothing dating back to the Civil War. See doesn’t think Maggie could appreciate the quilts value saying, “‘But they’re priceless! Maggie would put them on the bed in five years they’d be in rags’” (57). Maggie would put the quilts to everyday use and continue making more, which would carry on the tradition and heritage of African American women in that time. In a critical essay of “Everyday Use” Dee’s value of the quilts and why she suddenly wants to preserve them is explained. “She has joined the radical, black nationalists of the 160s and 170s, changing her name from Dee to Wangero and cultivating a suddenly fashionable interest in what she passionately describes as her ‘heritage’”(Baker 714-16). Dee’s values of her family tradition and ancestors’ heritage contradict each other because she dislikes her oppressors’ names, but longs to be fashionable like her oppressors. The mother is confronted with the decision of who to give the family quilts to. The values the mother puts on the continuance of the family tradition and black heritage, which Maggie also possesses, overrides Dee’s contradicting values toward her history. Walker’s theme is apparent when the mother bases her decision on the want to continue the tradition of quilt making for the following generations to master. The mother makes the connection between the past and present while looking toward the future of African American women.

In “Strong Horse Tea” Walker displays the values of two black women on their heritage to make a life altering decision. During the mid 100s white people could care less if a colored child lives or dies. When Rannie Tommer’s baby son falls ill of pneumonia and whooping cough she must decide whether to use the expensive modern technology of the white doctors, or the natural remedies used by her ancestors to save him. The old woman of the town, Sarah, tries to convince Rannie to use the old remedies, but she ignorantly refuses saying, “‘I don’t believe in none of that swamp magic…We going to have us a doctor.’”(88). The values Sarah and Rannie have on their heritage are extremely different. Sarah has confidence in herself because she understands the circumstances of the present time and takes the knowledge from the past to preserve the future of the boy’s life. Rannie doesn’t comprehend the lack of the care whites have for black in this time and doesn’t believe in her ancestry until she is convinced that her son will die without the remedies. Walker’s theme shines through when the inconsistent value Rannie has on black heritage and traditions decides the deadly fate of her son. Rannie looked to the modern time’s technology, and because she rejected the knowledge of the past it cost the future of her sons life.

Walker incorporates in “To Hell with Dying” how a young African American woman relates to her past and grows into the future by the values she places on the tradition of her community. An elder in her community, Mr. Sweet, wrestles with and sings and plays the guitar for the children. Throughout her life it has been a tradition that the children go to his reoccurring death bed to revive him. Her father says, “‘To hell with dying, man, these children want Mr. Sweet’” (14) and the children tickle and kiss him until he comes to. The modern knowledge of the doctor is automatically thrown out and the past tradition of relying on the children to save Mr.Sweet becomes fact. The girl, now a young woman in college, is asked to return home because of Mr. Sweet has fallen ill again. She deserts her classes to follow a tradition to save a treasured man’s life. This time the visit is unsuccessful and the now modernly educated woman is given the guitar the old man used to strum when playing to her. Walker’s theme shows when the woman makes the decision to leave school because of the value she places on the tradition, and the love the tradition creates for the man she is saving, is more important than her grades. This value of tradition links three generations of African American families to create a story of past, present and future.




Alice Walker’s short story collection In Love and Trouble unveils the value African American women put on their ancestors’ tradition and heritage. During the 100s the black population was oppressed by the whites and black women were faced with decisions based on their history that would affect their lives and the future generations to come. The short stories in this collection present the reoccurring theme of how the individual values African American women have on their history effects their decisions toward the future, during these drastically changing times. The women are challenged to weave their ancestors’ tradition and heritage into their own lives and inspire the minds of their descendants.



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