Everyday Use Character Analysis

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In the short story "Everyday Use", Alice Walker crafts the character of the three main characters in a clever way. This was very important as it is the three characters, Dee, Maggie and Mama who made the story to be as powerful as it is. The three main three characters are used very well by walker to pass the underlying concepts of the story. Dee and Maggie are the two daughters of mama and this paper is going to analyze their character differences.

Starting with the first paragraph of the short story, Alice Walker builds a powerful image of Dee. At first she seems to be a very shallow character. However, this changes as the story develops and she becomes more and more complex. Blessed with both beauty and brains, Dee immerges as a girl who
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These personalities add a different dimension to the short story. She comes out to be a more likable character that is a more likely bearer of tradition and her culture sacredness and preserves its heritage more than her educated and "brighter" sister. Maggie is a bright girl who truly comprehends the true value and meaning of heritage. As her sister Dee affirms, Maggie is backward and unsophisticated to put the quilts promised to her by her mother to everyday use. However, what her sister Dee does not make out is that in doing so Maggie would be preserving the ancestral meaning and importance of the family quilts and this is what is important. Alice Walker strengthens the cultural importance of Maggie's personality when she firmly does not allow Dee to have her way. She hugs Maggie close to her, drags her to one room. She goes on to snatch the quilts from Dee and then dumps them on Maggie's lap. This clearly shows that Maggie with support of her mother wants to uphold and preserve a lasting relationship and connection with her heritage. She represents a large number of African Americans who value their heritage and they would love the idea of passing on that heritage to their off springs without diminution between

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