Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

“Everyday Use” Alice Walker. Is narrated in the first person through the eyes of the Mother, who has two daughters, Dee and Maggie. The mother begins by describing Maggie, then herself, and then the anticipated arrival of Dee and how she thought Dee would be. She imagines Dee coming home as if on the TV show, “This Is Your Life.” On the other hand Maggie is not the brightest person and her beauty does not astonish, but she’s hardworking like her mother, on the other hand Dee is pretty, finished high school and when to college; therefore Dees’ opinions are different than her mother’s and Maggie’s opinions about the movement and the value of their everyday use things around the house. In this story Walker suggests that people can’t expect other …show more content…
The mother is proud of Dee and wants her to be proud of her too, she wants Dee to acknowledge for all the hard work she’s done for instance raising the money with the church to send her to school to get an education.
The arrival of Dee is not as exciting to everyone as much as it is to the mother. In Maggie’s case she is happy but not thrilled about the visit because she feels she would be left out while Dee is there because of her mother’s bigger pride and love for Dee. There’s also that feeling on how her sister is smarter, prettier than her haunting her especially with the burn scars down her arms and legs, she’s ashamed off that happened when the first housed …show more content…
While exploring she find this two quilts and takes them out, her mother starts telling her the history behind the quilts. Dee says “Can I have these old quilts?” right after you here a door slam. Suspecting that Maggie slammed the door because she was getting upset thinking her mother was going to give her the quilt she promised. The mother replies with a counter offer, why don’t you take one or two of the other quilts, this one was made by Big Dee and I, also I promised it to Maggie. This is the first time in the story we hear Dee getting denied in a request. This makes Dee feel outraged, she starts making a fuss saying Maggie could never appreciate them as much as her. I would hang them up and Maggie would just use them as an everyday use and would become an old rag. Maggie comes in and says, “I can remember grandma without them.” She says that trying to end the fight and get Dee to leave as fast possible. The mother puts its foot down and it’s not letting Dee get her way, she’s denying the request over and over again, Maggie is surprise because to her she though Dee was the loved one, the one no one says no too. After so many no’s Dee leaves furious. I think that’s when the mother notices that she’s not really how she expected, she sees them and their things as artifacts in a museum of African American heritage about living in the country.