Maggie is physically and mentally scarred. Physically because the fire that had took place at the old house and mentally because of the opportunities that were given to her sister. Her older sister Dee was beautiful and confident and she had gotten to go to college and live life. Maggie is highly self-conscious. In “Everyday Use”, her mother compared the way she walked to that of a lame dog that had been run over by a car. Ever since the fire, Maggie had begun to walk with her chin on chest, eyes on the ground and feet in a shuffle. She had communication apprehension when it came to pretty much talking to anyone. Maggie had to accept the country life and endured a much more difficult youth than Dee. Despite her personality, Maggie still lived a justly satisfied and concrete life. She goes on sharing everyday chores between her and her mother. In the end, Maggie is just a modest girl living a submissive…
Maggie and Wangero (Dee) are sisters. Maggie still lives with their mother in the family home. Wangero has moved on and lives in the city. Wangero has changed her name from Dee to get more in touch with her heritage. After years of shunning her African American background, Wangero now wants to embrace it. Wangero is used to getting her way. Her mother has never not given her everything she‘s asked for. She’s educated, clothed, and has grown into an attractive young woman. Maggie on the other hand is still living on the farm. She didn’t receive the same opportunities as her sister. A fire has left her scared, more than just physically. She is more introverted then Wangero. She’s not used to getting her way but still plodding through life with the expectations of a future. She knows her life will be servitude to her future husband John Thomas. Life has just passed her by when it comes to the values that her sister Wangero holds dear.…
As the story begins, Maggie and her mother are extremely proud of who they are and where they come from. Dee, on the other hand, seems somewhat embarrassed to have the background of an African American. Maggie’s mother refers to her as “a large, big boned woman with rough,…
Maggie's quiet backward nature on examination is a portrait of a person who receives from life whatever is given but is ashamed of the scars she received in the fire that destroyed their first home. She hides her thin body in a pink skirt and red blouse. Since the fire, she shuffles as she walks, "chin on her chest, eyes on the ground. Dee had a style of her own; and knew what style was. Style is the key to Dee's life. Like the sunglasses she puts on before she leaves, style is the color of glass Dee sees life through. She is blessed with looks, nice hair and a full figure.…
First, the mother affectionately called Mama describes Maggie her younger daughter. Mama tells us that Maggie has burn scars on her arms and legs from a fire at their old house. She didn't actually say that Dee set the fire but she implied that she did (107). The mother describes the way Maggie walks by comparing her to a dog that has been run over by a car. The mother said, "she has always been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle" (107). According to the mother Maggie thinks her sister has always held life in the palm of her hands (106). Mama describes herself as a large woman big boned she called herself rough, with manly working hands, taking pride in her ability to "kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as any man" (107). Mama feels Dee would want her to be…
She remembers her daughter as a self-centered girl that lacks the understanding of the identity of her family. Once the daughter shows up and greets the mother and sister, she eventually informs them that she has changed her name to an adopted African name. In the story the mother wants to give the grandmothers quilts to Dee, who wants to hang them as she is thinking she would be preserving them. The mother gets upset and snatches them from Dee and gives them to Maggie. Dee is not happy about that and insists that Maggie will ruin them with “Everyday Use” (Farrell, 1998). This is one of several points in the story where there is drama. I don’t think it is so much that Dee has a lack of identity or disrespect for her ancestors, but she just feels that she has a different way of doing things or looking at things. This is normal among people in our societies. Parents always feel they know what is best for their children, but sometimes the best lesson is the lesson learned the hard way. I enjoy the story of Alice Walker; she is a great example of perseverance. She is a woman who came up in the mid 1940s, but when she was eight she was shot in the eye by her brother with his BB gun. She lost sight in one of her eyes, but this did not hold her back. She persevered and was valedictorian in high school. After high school she pursued secondary education and attended Spellman College and Sarah…
Dee is sisters with Maggie in this story, she is the character who is very impolite, or that does things her way. Dee is the only educated character; it says in the short story that she left so that she could be educated. Dee is noticed as a character that does whatever she wants, and have it go her way. One example is that, Dee wears a brightly colored, yellow-and-orange, ankle-length dress that is inappropriate for the warm weather. This shows that she would wear anything she wants even if its inappropriate in any way. In the story mama wouldn’t let Dee have the quilts, and she became furious. This another example that she is very stubborn, because in the end she keeps the quilts.…
Dee is a force in the family, but she is arrogant and condescending towards Mama and her sister. Dee, too, is full of resentment about everything. She hates the way she grew up. She hates their family home. She hates that her mother was more like a man than a woman. She hates that Mama and Maggie aren't as smart and "stylish" as her. Yet, when Dee becomes captivated by the “Back to Africa” movement, suddenly her family's own heritage becomes something popular rather than a source of embarrassment. She returns home demanding the family quilts not for sentimental reasons, but because they now considered “special” and is shocked when Mama denies her of them. Dee's potential narration would be a delusional one, as even she with her self-confidence denies her connection to her family, is swayed by society's views of culture and popularity and even takes on her own new persona as Wangero.…
She shows more interest in sticking to the roots of where their family traditions began. She also was able to catch more physical interactions with Mama than Dee was able to. Maggie does not try to draw any more attention to herself than she needs. She has also developed a full understanding of the quilt making, which is a very important skill she currently holds over…
Dee is the object of jealousy, awe, and agitation among her family members, while as an individual she searches for personal meaning and a stronger sense of self. Dee’s judgmental nature has affected Mama and Maggie, and desire for Dee’s approval runs deep in both of them—it even appears in Mama’s daydreams about a televised reunion. However, Dee does not make much of an effort to win the approval of Mama and Maggie. Unflappable, not easily intimidated, and brimming with confidence, Dee comes across as arrogant and insensitive, and Mama sees even her admirable qualities as extreme and annoying. Mama sees Dee’s thirst for knowledge as a provocation, a haughty act through which she asserts her superiority over her mother and sister. Dee is also portrayed as condescending, professing her commitment to visit Mama and Maggie no matter what ramshackle shelter they decide to inhabit. Far from signaling a brand-new Dee or truly being an act of resistance, the new persona, Wangero, comes across as an attention-seeking ploy in keeping with Dee’s usual selfishness. Dee says she is reclaiming her heritage, but she has actually rejected it more violently than ever before.…
Dee had very high self-confidence, and thought she was better than Maggie and Mama. Her self-confidence gave her the ability to “stare down any disaster.” “She thinks her sister has always her life in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her.” (Walker 2) Dee has strong hatred for the house from all of the bad memories she had growing up as a child, and how she resented Mama because she was pushed to do everything. Another difference that sets aside Dee from her mother and…
Dee’s family consists of her mother and younger sister, Maggie. Mother and Maggie are well rooted in family tradition and they live on the premises of those values. Dee likes to be into the latest fashions and trends. She even changes her name to one that sounds more African and starts to date a man named Asalamalakim. However, it is apparent the moment she exits her car and steps foot onto Mama’s lawn that haughtiness has blinded her. Before even acknowledging her families presence Dee is quick to focus the attention on herself by asking her mother how she looks. Not only that, but the way in which she addresses her mother and snaps pictures of the house, as if her family is a subject of some sort of documentary, depicts her arrogance toward them as well.…
The mother is the narrator of the story and she shows the audience their differences. She also seems to be jealous of Dee in multiple ways. The mother describes herself to be “a large big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (Everyday Use. 256). Both girls are beautiful in their own way, but Maggie is jealous of Dee’s beauty and it seems as if Maggie is ashamed of the way she looks also due to her scars. Maggie and Dee have completely different physical appearances than each other. Maggie has a thin body figure, and…
The personality of a person is based on their characteristics and qualities. Maggie is a shy and insecure girl because of her appearance, for example, “Showing just enough of her thin body enveloped in pink skirt and red blouse for me to know she’s there” (Walker 52). Maggie is also a small not so much attractive girl with a burn scar on her cheek, which in my opinion probably contributes to her shy personality. In contrast, Dee is a very attractive and appealing girl with a horrible personality, “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure” (Walker 53). Because she has always gotten everything she’s wanted, when her mom finally tells her “No,” Dee has a temper tantrum and storms away. While at one point in the story, Maggie was willing to let Dee have the quilts just to stop all the argument, another testament of her humble…
The two daughters are completely opposite from each other. Dee is beautiful, smart, out spoken, and even has a man by her side, and then there is Maggie; round, not very pretty, not very smart, quiet, still lives at home and does not have any man. Dee represents the perfect daughter in any other story and Maggie represents more of the outcast. However, in this story their mother sees Maggie as the loving, caring and supporting daughter and she sees Dee as the rude outcast who thinks she can have everything she wants by the snap of her…