In her short story by the name “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker kept up with her theme “African and American culture.” The story emphasizes the concept of individuality among family members raise in the same manner, by concentrating on the two sisters, Dee and Maggie, different personalities. Everyday Use story confers the basic conflict of sibling rival between members of the rural home of Johnson family.
This encounter takes place when Dee who is the only member on the family to be given a collage education as well as her male friend return to have a visit to Dee’s mother and also younger sister Maggie.
Walker employs a lot of characterization and symbolism to emphasize the dissimilarity that is between Dee in one hand and Mama and Maggie in the other, not only in appearance and life style, but also in their understanding of culture and honoring heritage.
The opening starts with Mrs. Johnson, Mama, who is the story’s narrator waiting in the yard, which is “not just a yard. It is like an extended living room”, page (71), for her oldest daughter arrival. While waiting, Mama describes the surrounding, and her view of her own self and daughters. The tone of the narrator is serious and alarming, which is showed in how the characters feel toward each other throughout the story, and a hint of humorous tone can be notice in the way the author represents Dee in particular.
Mama is a hard working, forgiving, loving mother who lives a simple life with her younger daughter, Maggie. She