Essay On Everyday Use By Alice Walker
Two Different Sides of the Same Coin
The preservation of one’s cultural history is something that everyone must decide how to handle. In the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, two characters have different ways of preserving their history and culture. Dee and Maggie, sisters, have different personalities, motivations, and views on society. This may seem unusual considering they grew up in the same house, and they were raised by the same person; one might compare these girls to two different sides of the same coin. Their different views on life alter the way each of them act. Early in the story, the narrator describes Maggie. Although she loves her sister, Maggie acts nervous and ashamed around Dee. With burns and scars tracing her body, Maggie does not feel confident around Dee; she feels inferior. When Dee arrives at the house, Maggie gets afraid and tries to return to the house. She is uneducated, which makes her self-conscious. Maggie …show more content…
It is just the matter of how both of them turned out differently. For example, Dee and Maggie were both born and raised in Georgia and they were both raised by the same person, Mama, which is a big part of their lives. Regardless of these similarities, they ended up being completely different people. Maggie may not have been the type of girl to go to school, like Dee, but she was still intelligent in some ways. In the story, Dee says,” Maggie’s brain is like an elephant’s…” Statements like such as that one show that they alike in some ways; they just present themselves differently. Dee and Maggie act very different because of their different views on life. In Everyday Use, Alice Walker shows that even if you are raised the exact same way as someone else, you still may end up different. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in some cases, like this story, it can cause
The preservation of one’s cultural history is something that everyone must decide how to handle. In the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, two characters have different ways of preserving their history and culture. Dee and Maggie, sisters, have different personalities, motivations, and views on society. This may seem unusual considering they grew up in the same house, and they were raised by the same person; one might compare these girls to two different sides of the same coin. Their different views on life alter the way each of them act. Early in the story, the narrator describes Maggie. Although she loves her sister, Maggie acts nervous and ashamed around Dee. With burns and scars tracing her body, Maggie does not feel confident around Dee; she feels inferior. When Dee arrives at the house, Maggie gets afraid and tries to return to the house. She is uneducated, which makes her self-conscious. Maggie …show more content…
It is just the matter of how both of them turned out differently. For example, Dee and Maggie were both born and raised in Georgia and they were both raised by the same person, Mama, which is a big part of their lives. Regardless of these similarities, they ended up being completely different people. Maggie may not have been the type of girl to go to school, like Dee, but she was still intelligent in some ways. In the story, Dee says,” Maggie’s brain is like an elephant’s…” Statements like such as that one show that they alike in some ways; they just present themselves differently. Dee and Maggie act very different because of their different views on life. In Everyday Use, Alice Walker shows that even if you are raised the exact same way as someone else, you still may end up different. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in some cases, like this story, it can cause