Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

Register to read the introduction… The mother tells us she is a "big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands" (876). We can see a large rough woman, who wears overalls during the day and a flannel nightgown when she goes to bed. Because she compares herself to a man many times, we can picture what she looks like. She and her daughters are black, but she describes Dee as being lighter than her other daughter, Maggie. She seems to be dreaming about how beautiful Dee probably is after all these years. She continues her daydreaming, which we can see and join in on, when we are interrupted with the actual arrival of Dee and her …show more content…
Maggie digs a "well in the sand with her toe" (877). We can almost see Maggie looking down and embarrassed. As Dee gets out of the car, it is her legs that her mother first recognizes. She says it looks as if "God himself shaped them with a certain style" (878). The next thing the mother notices is the stocky man with long messy hair and "hair hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail" (878). Walker then spells out the sound that Maggie makes as she sees the male friend. She says, "Uhnnnh," which gives the reader a sense of disgust at the thought of the inappropriate look of the man's hygiene. The mother then comes back to Dee as she describes what she is wearing. She gets out of the car in a very bright orange and yellow dress with gold earrings down to her shoulders. The way she looks is probably classic of the retro "mod" time period.

Dee and her friend come in and sit down to eat dinner. The next imagery comes in when Dee realizes how amazing the benches are, on which they are sitting. She describes the "rump prints" (879) they feel. She describes the butter churn in a similar way with the thumb prints in the top. Both of these images convey the thought of the use of these