Everyday Use Theme

Walker entertains African Americans and Americans about the relationship between these two sisters and their mother. One daughter is named Maggie and she stays at home with her mother and help her with the chores around the house. She was also burnt in a house fire so she does not het out much. “Mamma”, has another daughter, Dee. Dee is very beautiful, and outgoing and really completely opposite of Maggie. Dee leaves home and experience life for her own, and becomes a pro black person. When Dee comes back she wants things from here house to treat them as artifacts at her own home. Especially this quilt. Dee wanted it, but the mother wouldn’t allow it. She wanted Maggie to have it. Maggie kept this quilt and Dee left, but not without talking

Maggie reveres Dee and sees her in a place that is unobtainable for herself. Maggie’s introverted, quiet, subservient character reflects the treatment the family heritage receives from Wangero. She is silencing and suppressing her familial heritage out of her life. Maggie represents the family heritage because both are disrespected, unacknowledged, and devalued by Wangero. Wangero even insults Maggie’s intelligence when she states, “‘ She’d probably be backward enough to put [the quilts] to everyday use’” (477).

She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know” (Walker, 316). When Mama said this, she was referring to Dee and her new found knowledge. Dee would force her new views about her heritage that she learned from school and stated that Mama’s heritage was not right and needed a change. “You don’t understand,” she said as Maggie

Mama characterizes a “large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands,” and Dee is “lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure” (Walker 53). Dee is “overly concerned with style, fashion, and aesthetics,” which shows that she is materialistic and does not understand her heritage (Farrell 179). She grew up on the belief she was superior to others, because she is beautiful and intelligent; however, Maggie grew up shy and self-conscious, as a result of the young girl burning in a house fire. “Chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle” are the rhetorics Mama uses to describe the way Maggie walks (Walker 53). Mama also compares her to a “lame animal,” which allows the reader to infer her poise (Walker 53). Maggie’s personality completes the story, because she does not allow physical items to affect her connection with her culture.

Maggie’s appearance shows how different she is from Mama and Dee. Maggie is very bashful and very slim this is shown when Mama says “Showing just enough of her thin body enveloped in pink skirt and blouse” (52). Where Maggie is petite, she walks different compared to other people: “She has been like this, chin to chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle” (53). Maggie’s old house was very different compared to the new one. Her old house got burned down “Ten, Twelve years

These two sisters were raised alike yet differently. There is a fine distinction between the two. Maggie was different from Dee in that she wasn’t handed things to her in life and when it came to Dee, “That, ‘no’ is a word the world never learned to say to her (Walker 315). This statement shows the feelings that Maggie had towards her sister. She knew that her sister was beautiful, intelligent, and spoiled. Maggie became jealous of her sister. Maggie knew that she had strengths of her own, but she it covered under the shadow of Dee. Walker created Dee to be an character he despised Maggie. Cowart says “Walker focuses the reader’s growing dislike for the heroine in her indifference to Maggie, the pathetic sister she seeps prepare to ignore in a kind of moral triage” (?). It is clear that Dee hated Maggie. The reason being for Dee hating Maggie could be simply because she is not as educated as her. Dee states “Maggie’s brain Is like elephant’s” (Walker 319). This implies that the Dee did not take Maggie seriously. Dee is not kind towards her sister. Walker creates this negative relationship between the two sisters. Dee continues throughout the story to belittle Maggie. In the instance when Dee wanted to take the quilts for her own, she states that “Maggie can’t appreciate the quilts” (?). It’s interesting to see how negatively Dee is towards Maggie, creates Maggie into a strong woman. Even though Maggie

Dee has developed a passion for superiority over everyone, including her own mother. "She wrote me once that no matter where we "choose" to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends" (Walker 1). Maggie on the other hand, is "...nervous until after her

Her scrs comes from being burnt the the last house. Mama states the "She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground" . After being burnt and stuff Maggie changed, her personality and everything that made her her is different. All these aspects make her feel inferior to Dee. When Dee boyfriend tries to shake her hand when he introduced himself, Maggie feels embarrassed and feels like her hand isn’t shakable because of the burns. When Dee arrives home she starts to over think her past and what she came from. She starts to feel embarrassment of her family and her past. Dee starts to feel so bad that she changes her name Dee Johnson, to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo,because she feels like it’s a more acceptable name to the

In the story Mama said "She thinks her sister has always held life in the palm of her hand, and that 'no' is a word that the world never learned to say to her". Mama is saying that everything was always given to Dee, and that she never had to actually work for anything. Maggie feels like this is not fair and that her being so “Spoiled” is the reason Dee acts the way she does.

Dee was looked upon from Mama and Maggie. In one part of the story it described a dream Mama had in great detail about her and dee being on TV dressed really pretty with the appearance of money. I believe Dee’s motivation was quite different from Maggie’s. Dee thrived to be the “perfect child” and wanted to impress anybody and everybody around her. When it came down to Dee and family heritage she believed she got whatever she wanted, which was mostly true until she tried to get the quilts made by Maggie and her grandma.

Maggie is a very nervous and awkward person. She can be perceived as antisocial and in some ways it hides her beautiful personality and generous

She never hesitated to look anyone directly in the eye, hesitation was no part of her nature. Dee (Wangero) has always expressed herself in a very lavish way. She always wanted the best things to wear and have, she enjoyed nice things. The barrier she was facing was more of an obstacle. Dee (Wangero) wanted to have the quilts that her grandmother made along with Mama, but Maggie has already claimed them way before Dee (Wangero) got home from Augusta. Dee (Wangero) claims that Maggie will never appreciate these quilts which is why she should have them. At the end of the day Mama stood up for Maggie which led to Maggie to keeping the

Now if Dee were telling the story, it would be a little different it would be more like this. As she steps out the car the reader can tell she is very happy and in a good mood to see her family. She comes in a loud dress with her hair standing straight on her head like she going to church. When Dee starts walking towards the house Maggie attempts to dash back to the house. Dee might have been thinking that Maggie do not want her back by the way she was acting. Mama said, “Maggie attempts to make a dash for the house, in her shuffling way.” (Walker 3) When the family goes inside and eat dinner, after dinner Dee asks for the quilts. Mama tells her that she was going to give it to Maggie. Mama pleads, “I promise to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries John Thomas.” (Walker 6) Dee still begging and asking for the quilts while she is hugging and holding them. Mama snatches the quilts from Dee and hand them to Maggie. Now Dee looks at Mama as the antagonist/bad person because she is the reason why she is not getting the way she wants.

Alice Walker’s work, “Everyday Use” is about a girl named Dee who hated her life growing up in poverty and had her mind set on getting out of that lifestyle and getting an education. Ever since she was little she despised her life in poverty and felt that she deserved living in a better environment. When she grew up she practically disowned her family; changing her name and treating them as if she was a tourist when she visited.

At times it seems that Maggie resents her sister. One quote in particular expresses how Maggie feels around her sister, “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her.” I would say that Maggie has developed an inferiority complex that she continues to struggle with. However, their mother asserting herself and giving the quilts to Maggie, lessens the burden that Maggie carries and ends up smiling at Dee at the end of the story. Dee tries to encourage Maggie by saying “You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it.”