Alice Walker’s “Everyday use” focuses on the theme ‘valuing the past, and one’s family’. Like Dee, or should I say ‘Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo,’ valuing the past and our family may be challenging. This is because at times in our lives, our past and family becomes so common to us like ‘everyday use’ of items, that we often take them for granted.
Everyday Use takes place in the 1960’s in the narrator’s yard and house. She wasted no time and went into details about the setting. She explained that the yard is more like an ‘extended living room.’ I agree with this statement, mainly because the narrator said that the yard is swept clean as a floor.
The main characters of this story are Mother, Dee and Maggie. The other minor characters that were …show more content…
Mama waited in the yard anticipating Dee’s arrival while Maggie full of low self-esteem feels nervous about Dee coming home. Mother always thought that Dee hated Maggie because during the house fire, Dee watched the house go up in flames. This explains the burns on Maggie’s skin, probably the reason why she is so insecure. After the house fire, Dee left for school in Augusta. Mother pictured Dee’s arrival would have been like those reunion shows where a long lost child goes away with home and reunites with her parents. Mother also pictured Dee on the show with a fine probably white man like Johnny Carson. This did not go as mother imagined. When Dee arrived Maggie tried to run in the house, but mother stopped her. Dee then took out a camera and took pictures of Maggie and mother in front of the house. The way Dee was dressed, mother and Maggie were not accustomed to seeing her this way. Dee also brought her boyfriend with her, Hakim-a-barber. He was not the fine Johnny Carson mother imagined him to be. To top it all off, Dee then tells mother that she changed her name from Dee to ‘Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo.’ They then went inside to eat, and immediately Hakim-a-barber said that he does not eat collards or pork. Wangero still went on and ate everything and admired that the benches her father made were still there. Dee then ran over in the corner and told mother that she needed the butter churn.
Everyday Use takes place in the 1960’s in the narrator’s yard and house. She wasted no time and went into details about the setting. She explained that the yard is more like an ‘extended living room.’ I agree with this statement, mainly because the narrator said that the yard is swept clean as a floor.
The main characters of this story are Mother, Dee and Maggie. The other minor characters that were …show more content…
Mama waited in the yard anticipating Dee’s arrival while Maggie full of low self-esteem feels nervous about Dee coming home. Mother always thought that Dee hated Maggie because during the house fire, Dee watched the house go up in flames. This explains the burns on Maggie’s skin, probably the reason why she is so insecure. After the house fire, Dee left for school in Augusta. Mother pictured Dee’s arrival would have been like those reunion shows where a long lost child goes away with home and reunites with her parents. Mother also pictured Dee on the show with a fine probably white man like Johnny Carson. This did not go as mother imagined. When Dee arrived Maggie tried to run in the house, but mother stopped her. Dee then took out a camera and took pictures of Maggie and mother in front of the house. The way Dee was dressed, mother and Maggie were not accustomed to seeing her this way. Dee also brought her boyfriend with her, Hakim-a-barber. He was not the fine Johnny Carson mother imagined him to be. To top it all off, Dee then tells mother that she changed her name from Dee to ‘Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo.’ They then went inside to eat, and immediately Hakim-a-barber said that he does not eat collards or pork. Wangero still went on and ate everything and admired that the benches her father made were still there. Dee then ran over in the corner and told mother that she needed the butter churn.