Everyday Use By Alice Walker Summary
Boundaries
Our identity is highly important to us and is central to how we see and define ourselves. In “Everyday Use” Alice Walker tells a story of young woman who does not understand her heritage and her mother and shy younger sister. In the story, the author creates a cultural boundary between Dee and her mother and sister Maggie, with the use symbols to point out emotions, values, and differences in education. 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. …show more content…
Dee wants Mammas churn and dasher and wants to display them at her house. She says “I can use the churn top as a center piece for the alcove table… and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher.” (pg 65). It was obvious that Mamma and Dee had different ideas about these two objects. Dee sees the historical value of the objects but by having this knowledge she also understands the monetary value of those pieces. In contrast, Mamma values those objects differently from Dee the dasher and churn were not museum pieces for Mamma, instead they were tools that she used
Our identity is highly important to us and is central to how we see and define ourselves. In “Everyday Use” Alice Walker tells a story of young woman who does not understand her heritage and her mother and shy younger sister. In the story, the author creates a cultural boundary between Dee and her mother and sister Maggie, with the use symbols to point out emotions, values, and differences in education. 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. …show more content…
Dee wants Mammas churn and dasher and wants to display them at her house. She says “I can use the churn top as a center piece for the alcove table… and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher.” (pg 65). It was obvious that Mamma and Dee had different ideas about these two objects. Dee sees the historical value of the objects but by having this knowledge she also understands the monetary value of those pieces. In contrast, Mamma values those objects differently from Dee the dasher and churn were not museum pieces for Mamma, instead they were tools that she used