Character Relationships In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Often in literature, character relationships change and evolve. In “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker is about a mom and her two daughters, Maggie the quiet one and Dee the one who's stuck up and full of herself. Dee exploited her mother because she could not say no to her. Her mother believed she sabotaged their house by burning it down because she was embarrassed of the way they lived. Mama and the church had raised enough money to send Dee to college; when she came back she had completely changed her name and her view on her heritage. When Dee came home she tried to take the quilts sewn by her grandmother but Mama finally told her no. She took the quilts and gave them to Maggie. After a careful analysis of the story, the reader understands how Mama’s feelings changed towards Dee, why her feelings changed, and how this change affects the story as a whole. Throughout the story Dees Mother’s feelings began to change as Dee began to see heritage differently than her and Maggie. At the beginning, Walker

As Mama explains the details about their house burning down, she indirectly hints that she believed that Dee was the one who burned it. Mama comments, “I see her standing off under the sweetgum tree she used to dig gum out of, a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot chimney” (Walker 60). At this point the feeling that Mama had toward Dee changed dramatically as she recalls that Dee never tried to save them. The last straw before Mama finally realized what she was doing wrong was when Dee told her that she didn't understand her own culture. Dee comments, “Your heritage” (Walker 65). When Dee said this, her mom knew that she was not the one who did not understand her culture, it was actually Dee. At the end of the story, the reader understands why her feelings had changed and how she reacted to