Everyday Use

I was reading "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and I realized Alice Walker is portraying her own heritage through the story. The characters I am contrasting are the two daughters Maggie and Dee. The narrator is the mother of the two girls in the 1960's. Maggie and Dee are very different. The author conveys them in a way of how black people acted during the black movement.

The beginning of the story, the mother seemed ashamed of Maggie. She says "she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scares down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe." This shows Maggie is a little jealous of her sister, Dee. To me, Maggie portrays the attitudes of the black slaves. She's always being told what to do, ashamed of her scars which could represent the scars that the slaves had, and looking at her sister with a jealous eye. Maggie knew a lot about her heritage. She was proud of whom she was and she didn't need fancy education or money to show who she was. Maggie knew that the quilts from her grandmother were promised to her and when Dee starts arguing about it, Maggie easily gave them up. She said "She can have them; I don't need the quilts to remember Grandma." Maggie had learned to make quilts from her grandmother and she had a good relationship with her. Maggie was wholehearted and was proud of her heritage.

In contrast, Dee has a different outlook on life. She does not want to be treated as the "slaves" that Alice Walker is comparing them to. At the beginning of the story the mother started talking about Dee as if she were the perfect daughter. Dee ended up getting married and when she came home, many things changed. She had changed her name to Wangero. When Dee changed her name to the African name, it offended her mother. The mother told Dee that she named her after her relatives. This shows Dee didn't know or care anything about her heritage. Maggie explained how Dee wrote her a letter and said "no matter where we "choose" to live,