Preview

Everyday Use Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
392 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Everyday Use Analysis
Everyday Use
“Everyday Use” is a short story by “Alice Walker”, it is a disdainful short story. A story about two sisters and a mom, that the two girls are totally different. Also teaching to stand up for what you want.
This story is about a mom and a girl called Maggie that they live alone because the older sibling moved out. In the story Maggie and the mother have not seen how much Dee has changed in over six years. Dee in the short story sees that her sister Maggie and her mother have not change throughout these six years not a bit. In the story Dee and Maggie are examples of foil characters.
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.
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.
In this story i learned that being generous and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Alice Walker’s short story, Everyday Use, there are many characters with contrasting personalities. There are two sisters named Dee and Maggie who are polar opposites in both appearance and character. Dee is more upstanding and proud, while Maggie is humble and respectful, so they don’t get along. Although most of Dee’s and Maggie’s characteristics contrast so much, they do share some of characteristics.…

    • 64 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The first paragraph of the story tells us that the mother loved her daughters very much. She prepared everything such as making the yard so clean just to wait for her daughter to come. Therefore, we can say that the mother is a loving mother. In the paragraph number four, the mother tells the readers that she dreamed a dream that one day she and her daughter Dee brought together on a TV show and her daughter would tell the world how she was proud of her mother. The paragraph can tell us that the mother was only proud of Dee, not Maggie. She only dreamed that Dee would say something great about her, she didn’t mention anything about Maggie. So, one of the character of the mother was partial. The paragraph thirteen tells us that the mother was a poor and uneducated woman.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Everyday Use” is a short story that takes place during the 1960’s during the black political movement (Hoel, Helga). This story is about a mother and one of her two daughters visiting. The mother, who is also the narrator in the story has done all she can for her daughters raising them. Dee is visiting her mother for the first time in years from being at school. Maggie is the unfortunate one who has not got to move out and explore life, unlike her sister. The mother is excited to reunite with her…

    • 94 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This form of redemption takes place as an epiphany: You realize that what can save you isn't out there, but has been nearby all along, beside you, even in you, but never noticed, never heard, or never given a second thought” (Whitsitt 43). One instance of Dee’s attitude and loss of heritage is when they are all about to eat and she notices the hand-stitched quilts, which belong to Maggie, and demands that they be given to her. The attitude she has about wanting the quilts shows that she is a selfish person, and she obviously has no respect for her sister or mother or she wouldn’t have caused such an altercation. The quilts can symbolize many different events, but the true meaning of the quilts can only be decided from the readers’ past experiences. “The story shifts abruptly to the past tense immediately after Dee declares that she has changed her name. Up until now, Mama has been caught in the tension between her annoyance with Dee and her instinctive desire to be "the way my daughter would want me to be." Yet when Dee goes so far as to disown her family identity, Mama reaches a watershed”(Tuten…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eveyday Use

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dee, the eldest daughter, has ventured from the rural world she grew up in but never felt a part of. The story is set in the context of her returning home for the first time since she left for college. Maggie the younger daughter has never left home. As the story unfolds Dee's motives become apparent. She has come home to retrieve objects from her former life that are meaningful to her. She plans to incorporate them into her décor. Mama relates her sad attempt to find value in her family and claim her inheritance.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use Analysis

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When mama had her last straw she stood up to Dee about the quilts. Dee was ungrateful and a spoiled child that didn’t care about anyone but herself. Maggie was use to Dee getting her way. Mama realized that Maggie deserved the quilts and she stood up to Dee and gave them to Maggie. At that point mama had made a positive change by putting Dee in her place and taking up for Maggie who was so sweet and innocent her being a honest person and staying true to herself showed mama she deserved better.…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Foremost, after Dee stops for a visit, Mama and Maggie can see that she is a different woman. She changes her name and believes that her understanding of heritage is what heritage is truly about. She enters the house and tries to take the quilts that are very important to Mama and Maggie, seeing that she believes she has to have it to support her “culture.” The text reads, “‘But they’re priceless!’ she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper” (Walker 59). Here, Dee’s character getting furious because she is not receiving the quilts shows how much she has culture misunderstood. She believes in her immature mind that she has to obtain the quilts to support her with her heritage when she does not. As a result of her selfishness and corrupted views, it is clear to see that she does not understand what tradition is truly about. Later in the story, it is evident that Maggie has a full understanding of what heritage actually is because of what she so selflessly does. After Mama tells Dee she cannot have the quilts, maturely, Maggie allows Dee have the quilts. The story reads,”’She can have them, Mama,’ she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her. ‘I can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts’”(Walker 59). This event portrayed here by Walker surely shows how mature and wise Maggie is. She understands that the quilts do not mean anything about heritage and that she can hold on to her grandmother without them. This event surely portrays the theme of a person does not have to possess worldly items to remember where they came…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    English POV essay

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Walker allows the reader to see the story from Mama's point of view granting the ability to view both sides of how Maggie and Dee express their heritage. From the lines of the story Mama states," Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits...Often I fought off the temptation to shake her."(Walker 154), demonstrating her negative view of Dee. From Mama's point of view, Dee is yet to understand the true meaning of heritage shown by her lack of appreciation for her family. Mama grows to dislike how Dee treats her family and how she automatically believes she is superior due to the fact that she receives an education as the other members did not have this opportunity. From Mama's stand point in this story the reader is able to see the attributes that she does not like about Dee, and understand her decisions later in the narrative for these reasons. On the other side of the siblings, Mama's perspective reveals Maggie's short comings by pointing out how she is overly submissive and shy. The reader can clearly see that Mama grows to favor Maggie due to how quiet and compassionate she was growing up learning things from Grandma Dee as she grew. Maggie grows up in the shadow of Dee, but only because of how Dee would always take away the attention which leads Maggie to grow up more…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dee’s selfishness is emphasized through the mothers first person point of view, which might be bias, however in a line where Dee says “don’t get up.”, when she got back from college and was already dressed and spoke differently. she soon starts taking pictures of her mother and sister. This quote shows that Dee wasn’t really excited about seeing her mother and sister, it enforces how self-centered she actually is. She only cared about taking pictures to have her heritage, but the family was there so it didn’t really made sense.After she took pictures of her family, house, coffee pot, etc. She starts taking things from the house such as the quilt grandma Dee had made for Maggie. Dee began to want it, but since maggie was already use to Dee getting her way, she agreed for Dee to keep the quilt because she didn’t need much to remember grandma Dee since she…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author sets up an emotional boundary that separates Dee from her sister Maggie. In the beginning of the story Mamma explains that Dee looks at her sister with fear and jealousy. (61) This emotional boundary is caused because Dee gets just about everything she wants. One example of this is Dee’s graduation dress. When Dee was younger she got the graduation dress that she wanted, and also got the opportunity to go to college. In contrast, Maggie wasn’t so lucky, ever since Mamma’s old house burned down Maggie has not been the same. Maggie has scars from the fire and since then she turned into a very timid person. Maggie’s scars are a symbol of Maggie’s pain and the pain that she has suffered. In the end, we can see that Maggie’s feeling toward Dee sets her apart from her sister.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story begins with mama and Maggie waiting for Dee’s. Mama, the narrator of the story, describes herself as a "large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (Walker 553) She does not paint an attractive picture of herself, however she goes on to list the many things she can do. Like the items in the setting around her, she seems more interested in practicality, and less interested in aesthetics. Mama fantasizes about reunion scenes on television programs in which a successful daughter embraces the parents who have made her success possible. Mama imagines reuniting with Dee the same way, where Dee shows up with emotions, but it didn’t quite go the way it happens on television. When Dee arrived she was not the person Mama hoped to see. She had another name and she was married to a Muslim, so she had become a Muslim herself which made her see all the old items as a part of her heritage.…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dee looks highly feminine in contrast to Mama and Maggie. She begins to take pictures of the house, Mama, Maggie, and cows nearby. Also she starts taking interest in the house, the benches, and everyday items in the house. Ironically, Dee seems to be showing interest in her heritage; the same heritage that she distanced herself from in the beginning. However, Dee has changed her name to "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo", a possible African name. She could not "bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me." Mama told her that the name "Dee" branches back to many past generations. But Dee brushes it off her shoulder. Mama still sees that Dee is not showing any true understanding of the family and heritage. Maggie was extremely passive when Dee came back home. The major controversy in the story is the discussion about the quilts. It happens when Dee goes into Mama 's room and grabs the quilts. The quilts were passed down through many past generations. The quilts were made up by scraps of Grandma Dee and Grandpa Jarrell 's old clothing. When Dee first saw the quilts, her intention was to take it for herself. Mama tells Dee that the quilts were promised to Maggie. Dee enters a rage and says that Maggie would be dumb enough to put the quilts to everyday use. Also she expresses that Maggie does not understand the value of these quilts. It is…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The story begins with mamma and Maggie waiting on the front porch for Dee, the older sister to arrive home for a visit. Dee arrives home and immediately steps out of the car, “A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out. Earrings, too, gold and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arm up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits”.(Walker, 1944, Para 20) Her clothing shows she is strong, independent, very classy, all the things her mamma and sister were not. Dee arrives home with a man, not sure if it’s her husband or not.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maggie, was burned and bruised after the burning down of their old home. The ugly scars leave her feeling less than others, especially her well educated sister. When Dee grows older she…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays