English Class Exposed In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

As an incoming college freshman staring at the schedule you have been assigned, the emotions and stress are most likely taking over every part of your body. Not to mention the stress of student loans, meal plans, housing payments, and book fees. You are taken aback by the classes that a freshman is required to take. Most of them might not even have anything to do with your major! You notice that English 1101 is on the schedule. You may be thinking that taking an English class has nothing to do with your chosen major. However, English is not all about what is done inside of the classroom. When studying the selection “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, I learned that not only does understanding and appreciating English class assist me in passing
Dee comes into town to visit her sister and her mother and when Dee disrupts the household by marking her claim on the family’s precious heirlooms, Mama and Maggie, Dee’s sister, realize that Dee lacks the sense of appreciation of what their family has created. The main objects that Dee has her eyes on are the two quilts, handmade by the girls’ grandmother. Dee wants to take them back with her to her home to put on display, but Maggie wants to keep the quilts to actually use and appreciate them. Maggie was always the quieter of the sisters, but even more so when the fire that burned down their house also scarred her. Mama describes her as a lame animal, and that when she walks, its “chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground”(492). Maggie has always felt that she was just in Dee’s shadow, and never recieved as much attention. Dee has always been the outgoing, colorful, and loud sister. When she approaches the house, Mama describes her dress as having “yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun”(493). This is also an accurate representation of Dee’s personality. Upon arriving with her new husband, Dee promptly tells her family that she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Dee was a family name, and she disregarded that fact. That was the first moment that Mama and Maggie realized that Dee had lost
Dee wants the quilts to be hanging on display in her flat, essentially collecting dust. However, Mama has promised the quilts to Maggie, who wants to use them as blankets. When Mama mentions that she was saving the quilts for Maggie’s use, Dee says “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use”(496). Dee does not understand the value of the quilts to Maggie or the reason she wants to use them in the same sense that she no longer understands the traditions of her