Character Interaction In Alice Walker'severyday Use

Decent Essays
Alice Walker’s ¨Everyday Use¨ contains remarkable interactions between the three main characters. These three people are a family of african-americans controlled by a single mother, with two polar opposites for daughters. The youngest daughter, Maggie, was a bashful and timid child. She had always looked up to her older sister, because of the way she is in command of her life. While, the eldest daughter, Dee, thought herself to be above the rest of her family. She seemed to think she was better. When Dee returns home after college, she steps out of her car, and Maggie and Mama can see that she has very much changed. She dressed more elegantly. She had a new boyfriend. She even had the nerve to change her name. The same name that had run in

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” portrays the relationships between mothers and daughters. I believe the short story demonstrates a mother’s unconditional love for her children. She did her best to raise both of her daughters. Despite Dee and her mother’s tough relationship, her mother was still accepting of who she had decided to be.…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One could argue that perhaps the determined young Dee had decided that if she could only destroy her mother’s house (that she’d apparently hated so much) she could escape the roots that she would later reject, and the simple life that she had always been contemptuous of. Although this is not an irrational thought, credit must be given where credit is due. Even in childhood, Dee was rather competent⸺wouldn’t she have realized that setting the house of her economically disadvantaged mother on fire might only result in her family being forced to move into a much less aesthetically pleasing home? (Which is exactly what happened, according to Mama’s narration and description of the second house where the events of the story take…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sisters from Story Everyday Use Alice Walker in her short story Everyday Use, published in 1973, brought us into house of Mrs. Johnson, black women living in the rural part of country. We are visiting her in the same time as her older daughter Dee. Through the mother’s eyes we see how her two daughters, although born and raised in the same house are different. They are different not only in their appearance, but also in their approach to life, family, everyday objects even their heritage. Unlike Dee, Maggie still lives in her mother’s house.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Dee/Wangero is weary of oppression and aims to overcome it by constructing a new understanding of her Black heritage. However, this new understanding of her ancestors neglects her immediate family and their values. Dee introduces herself to Mama as “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”, a name which she believes shows pride in her African heritage, and says “[Dee’s] dead [...] I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker). Mama replies with "You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie” (Walker).…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To change her name and make a statement as she did was an insult to her mother/heritage which was handled in a selfish manner. “…peeks…with a Polaroid” Dee get out her camera and starts taking pictures of the pasture and her mother’s house but, making sure Mrs. Johnson and Maggie are in the photos. She wants to photograph her hard life and display it so everyone can see what she made it out of. Dee used her education in a prideful and arrogant manner. She claimed Mrs. Johnson and Maggie “don’t understand” their heritage and that Maggie “ought to try to make something” of…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When Dee first arrived; Dee appears stylish and wealthy, unlike her sister and mother. She is embracing a different cultural heritage than the rest of her family, one that is associated with her imagined ancestry more than her actual background. As Maggie and her mother attempt to overlook the betrayal from Dee they continue to embrace her presence until she announces her new name. “What happened to Dee’?” I wanted to know.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short story of “Everyday Use” the mother-daughter relationship is stressed and interprets the African-American Woman’s individuality in terms…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story Everyday Use, the main female character who has the biggest revelation is Dee. However, in this story Dee’s revelation is not necessarily a good one. Dee reveals herself as having a change of attitude in regards to her heritage and what it truly means. Instead of viewing her heritage like her sister, Maggie, who views her heritage as something precious and priceless, Dee view her heritage as a distant tourist attraction. Dee left her family to pursue education, but the main thing she comprehended from her education was the oppression of her people, and has stripped her heritage of what it truly means.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Muriel Rukeyser said "The universe is made of stories, not of atoms", it 's true. Perharps it 's not true for scientist, but Alice Walker has proved the power of stories. I believe we can know it from her stories, "Everyday Use" and "The Color Purple", and also her autobiography. They are very impressing for readers.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The main conflict of the story "Everyday Use" is that Dee wants the quilt to flaunt it with her friends, still her mother wants to give the quilt to Maggie her sister, simply, because she believes Maggie will make use of it every day, not just flaunting their legacy every day. The mother at last has had enough of Dee’s conceit/vanity and being self-centered. She informs Dee that she can’t have the quits on account of, they belong to Maggie. Sadden about the news, Dee goes on to say that Maggie will overuse the quilts by using them every day, and ruin them. Her sister in an effort rationalize about the situation offers Dee other quilts that her mother has made, but Dee pays her no attention.…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In contrast, Maggie is obviously upset. She shuffles around awkwardly as if awaiting the arrival of a grand goddess. Through the actions and thoughts of Mother the audience gains an extremely flawed picture of Dee. Because Mother is extremely self-conscious around Dee she indirectly perceives many of Dee qualities in a negative light. Dee’s ambition is perceived as “demanding” and when Dee tries to use her education to help Maggie it…

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Literature Essay Thesis Proposal In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker tells the story of Dee, Mama, and Maggie who all come from the same culture, yet they express their culture in different ways. Dee expresses her culture by rebranding herself and wanting to have artifacts of her heritage, unlike Mama and Maggie they lived in their traditional settings of their culture every day. The Ideas Walker wants the readers to know is that each of these characters have opposing views on what their culture means to them, and if they can look past these differences.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The point of view in the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker plays a big part. Throughout the story, one of Mama’s daughters came to visit. The way Mama and Maggie see her is not in a very pleasant way. In fact, they are scared to tell her no when it comes to anything. From Mama’s perspective Dee seems like this rude, stuck up, spoiled child because she had the opportunity to go out and expand her education, while Mama and Maggie continued to live their lives on the farm.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyday Use captures the denial of heritage and taking advantage of her mother through the eldest daughter who renamed herself to a more African sounding name and then tries to take anything she pleases only to have a hissy fit when her mother finally gets the confidence to say no to her. Alice Walker takes two completely different people and shows how even though their situations may not be the same as one is dealing with her eldest daughter and the other an abusive husband both stories capture the journey that each character takes to get to the point of them standing up for themselves which makes the two stories correlate with each other even though the danger of each situation is not the same. Alice Walker beautifully captures the struggles that some individuals were facing in the African-American community in her…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Growing up during the civil rights era, Dee was able to get an education and take part in movements which embraced black power and sought change. The effect of social structure and its development among generations is reflected in the contrast between Dee and her mother. This is made clear when the narrator mentions, “Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye?. . .Dee , though.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays