Preview

Dee And Maggie In The Short Story Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
267 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dee And Maggie In The Short Story Everyday Use By Alice Walker
-In the short story “Everyday Use” the characters Dee, Maggie and their mother are the ones shown in the beginning and I noticed that Dee seems very self center but I feel like that's a result of the burn scars they turned into hatred towards her sister Maggie because of her success. In the first scene Maggie is coming home from college so Dee and their mother are waiting for her to come home. When they see the car pull up Dee tries to scurry back in to the house but her mother stops her. Their mother meets Maggie’s boyfriend and Maggie insists that she be called “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo” because she wants to embrace her African heritage. The big conflict happens when these quilts their grandmother made by hand were about to be given to Maggie

Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use
    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Everyday Use

    The short story “Everyday Use”, by Alice walker, begins with a family of three: Maggie, Dee, and “Mama”(there mother). The author never reveals her actual name. However Dee being old enough to attend college leaves off to college. When she comes back from college, she begins to express herself in different ways, a way that is more liberal. By the authors description she is dressed differently, she talks differently, she even changed her name to Wangero. However she starts gathering things that her mother and her sister, Maggie, owned to express her heritage, she has the wrong idea of heritage, her heritage lied in her own name passed from her grandmother to her aunt to her. the name that she carried, Dee, was passed along for three generations, which she didn’t realize. The author shows symbolism and point of view throughout the story through the family’s name,Dee, the quilt, the house, and the mother explains the story where the author uses point of view. The objects that make Dee the person she is, are disrespectful, selfish, and self-centered.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Maggie In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'
    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Maggie In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

    “Everyday Use” symbolizes the importance of quilts and the value put upon them by a mother and her two children. “I try to teach my heart not to want things it can't have” once said Alice Walker. In many cases I relate this quote to the character Maggie in the short story “Everyday Use.” Maggie is shy and bashful because of her scars. She feels that her older sister Dee had had it made while they were coming up. Dee had gotten the chance to go to college while Maggie had stayed home with her mom. Maggie became more in touch and aware of her ancestral roots because she had stayed home with her mom. One important object often associated with “Everyday Use” is the quilts. Dee felt like she should have the quilt because to her she had deserved them more than Maggie did. She felt like she had understood the importance of the quilts and she would put them to proper use. Ironically enough, she said that…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Is Everyday Use Maggie's Heritage
    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Is Everyday Use Maggie's Heritage

    Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is the story of a woman, referred to as Mama, and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. Mama and Maggie live together in their small home in a rural area. Dee has gone to college in a big city and is coming for a visit. Maggie is painfully self conscious, "chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle" with scars on her body from a house fire. Dee has always been scornful of her family's simple way of living and has been greatly influenced by her time away. Walker uses Maggie to explore the ideas of a family's heritage and history and, by contrasting her with Dee, voices a concern that in our search for our roots perhaps we are losing important aspects of our heritage.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Heritage In Alice Walker's Everyday Use
    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Heritage In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    The family heirlooms are the true tokens of Dee’s (Wangero Leewamika Kemanjo) identity and origins, knows little about the past and the essential facts about how the quilts were made and what fabrics were used to make them, she pretends to be deeply connected to this folk tradition. Her desire to hang the quilts, in a museum like exhibit, suggests that she feels reverence for them but that to her they are essentially foreign, impersonal objects. Mama believe that Maggie should have these quilt not Dee because Maggie will have better use for them. At the end of the story Dee stated that Mama and Maggie do not understand their heritage (page 429, 75), the turn of event it’s actually Dee herself who does not understand her heritage.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Concept Of Heritage In Alice Walker's Everyday Use
    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Concept Of Heritage In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    First, there is Dee. She sees heritage as an inferior stepping-stone. Dee returns home after being away at school with a whole new appearance. Dee is wearing a long, extremely colorful dress. The narrator in Walker’s story states that the dress is so loud it hurts her eyes. The first thing that Dee tells her mother is that she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Her mother is a strong, hard-working woman that has done what she could to raise her children. However, as strong as her mother is, this information hurts her feelings. Wangero tells her that Dee is dead, that she could not bear it any longer being named after people who oppress her. Wangero (Dee) takes numerous pictures of her mother and sister making sure the house she considers dilapidated is in the background. Wangero rudely demands the butter urn, dasher, and some quilts. Dee wants several items to build…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dee In Everyday Use
    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dee In Everyday Use

    Although there are several characters in the story, Everyday Use, only one appears to play important role in this story. In this story, Dee, the main character, appears to alienate herself from her family through pride and sense of self-importance. In the beginning of the story, Dee is portrayed as someone who is overwhelmed with prejudice, pride, and a sense of self- importance, which is display toward her sister,Maggie, and mother. As evidenced, the way she behaved when their house burned down.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lesson By Toni Bambar The Perseverance Of African American Society
    • 2384 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The Lesson By Toni Bambar The Perseverance Of African American Society

    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…

    • 2384 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Two Kinds By Amy Tan Essay
    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Two Kinds By Amy Tan Essay

    In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker there are two young ladies, Maggie and Dee who are sisters. Maggie is so accepting of her culture but Dee on the other hand moved away and was introduced to a new world which caused her to change the way she saw her culture drastically. Dee changed a…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Role Of Dee In Alice Walker's Everyday Use
    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Role Of Dee In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    While reading the short story "Everyday Use" written by Alice Walker, shallow and selfish come to mind as the story describes the oldest sister, Dee. Critics will argue on how selfish she really is though. According to Nancy Tuten, author of "Alice Walker's Everyday Use," Dee, the oldest sister, has grown accustom to getting her way and not sure how to act when she is told NO. Where Susan Farrell says in her article, "Fight vs. Flight: A Re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker's Everyday use," Dee is not as selfish as most people believe. Susan Farrell still says that Dee is selfish, but to a point, the rest is her view of her heritage and new way of copping with the oppressed society that they live in.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use Analysis
    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Everyday Use Analysis

    Maggie is the very shy and polite one out of her and Dee. Maggie was the character that lived with mama, during the story it says that Maggie was burned in a house fire. This character is a character that would just blend into the background because of how shy she was, she wouldn’t talk to much; so she would rather just blend in with the surroundings. Maggie was a foil character because her and mama didn't change nothing throughout the six years that passed, while Dee did change a lot; throughout those six years. Maggie is a good hearted kid, she would rather let Dee have the quilts that were promised to her, instead of fighting over them.…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use Analysis
    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Everyday Use Analysis

    Mama had finally realized she had to stand up to Dee. From all of the built up attitude that Dee had given her mother and sister it finally hit Mama. When Maggie was so willing to let her sister have the quilts it showed Mama it was time for a change. “when I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet” (166). “I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap” (166).…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Compare And Contrast Maggie And Dee In Everyday Use
    • 153 Words
    • 1 Page

    Compare And Contrast Maggie And Dee In Everyday Use

    In “Everyday use” , the mother and her two daughter, Dee and Maggie all hold their own ideas of family, principles, and their history. Although Dee has been away from her mother and sister for some time, it is obvious that they all hoped to have a smooth relationship. It is nearly impossible for the mother and daughters to pick up where they left off because they don’t all see eye to eye. Dee believes her sister is not as smart as her. The sister doesn’t feel comparable to Dee or as confident as Dee.…

    • 153 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Family Ties
    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Family Ties

    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.…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker
    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    Dee, a family name passed down to her from generations, carried immense importance in the eyes of Mama. “You know as well as me you were named after your aunt Dicie” (Walker 746). Hearing the new name Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, Mama was very disappointed and thought of Wangero as a girl who did not only change her name but her priorities too. “I couldn’t bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me” (746). Having her own reasons, Wangero was independent enough to change her name.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mathilde vs. Dee
    • 622 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mathilde vs. Dee

    In the story “Everyday Use”, Dee is portrayed as a girl who “made it”. She was seen by her mother and Maggie as a talented girl. Her only flaw was her selfishness towards her younger sister Maggie. In the story, she pays a visit to Maggie and her mother and have dinner. After dinner, Dee goes rifling through a trunk and two quilts catch her eye. She demands her mother to hand them to her. Although they were to be passed onto Maggie, she allows Dee to keep the quilts. In the end, Dee gives the quilts back.…

    • 622 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics