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Brief Summary And Analysis Of Maggie By Alice Walker

147 Words1 Pages
Maggie on the other hand, is characterized by her unattractiveness and timidity. Her skin is scarred from the fire that had happened ten or twelve years ago. Those scars she has on her body in the same way have scarred her soul leaving her ashamed. She “stumbles” in her reading, but Mrs. Johnson loves her saying she is sweet and is the daughter she can sing songs at church with, but more so that Maggie is like an image of her. She honors her family’s heritage and culture, by learning how to quilt and do things in the household, like her mother views their heritage. This shows why the two sisters have different perspectives on their heritage and how their experiences have contributed to each of their perspectives. Alice Walker creates her
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Maggie Lena Walker (Draper) was born to Elizabeth Draper & Eccles Cuthbert on July 15, 1867 in Richmond, Virginia. Born a daughter of a former slave. When Maggie was younger she used to always help her mother run a laundry in Virginia. Maggie was put in a wheelchair soon after she died from complications of her diabetic condition .She died December 15, 1934 in Richmond, Virginia.

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In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the characters of Dee and Maggie are more different than alike. In comparison, the two sisters are from African-American heritance raised by their poor mother in the 60’s. Walker describes the yard as, “the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves” (147). The two girls love their mother and show it differently than the other. Both girls value their mother’s treasures in different ways and appear to be jealous of each other.

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Everyday Use Literary Analysis “Maggie will be nervous until her sister goes. ”(Pg.50 line7) This is quote from the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker. The story revolves around a girl called Dee, her mom and sister Maggie. They have different opinions on different subjects especially relating to heritage.

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Beginning with Dee, the story clearly expresses how Dee was “lighter skinned, has nicer hair, and a fuller figure” than Maggie who is the very reserved young daughter. Mama also describes Dee’s feet as she’s getting out of the car as “neat looking” and “like God himself had shaped them with a certain style.” However, this is not the case with Maggie. The young daughter was scarred from the house fire, and left with burns affecting her vision. The house fire not only scarred her body but is a big contribute on why she is so withdrawn.

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The life of Maggie Johnson, was full of difficulties that did not allow for her success outside of the poor living community she lived in. Maggie as an immigrant and working class female, was pushed into a difficult life were she had no other choice but to seek her own destine in the life of prostitution. Unfortunately what led her into prostitution was her boyfriend Pete who left her heartbroken and her mother who kicked her out of the house. According to Jimmie Maggie’s brother, she had gone against the cultural norms.

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Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday use” tells the story of a mother and her two daughters views on important things that shaped them. Each reader can choose which character they identify most with by what each individual daughter values is most important. Dee and Maggie portrayed their contrasting views on appearance, educational paths, and even their perception on embracing their family heritage. How is it possible for two children who come from the same home to have completely different perspectives of what life truly means?

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820 Words | 4 Pages

Johnson is waiting in her front yard for her daughter Dee who is coming to visit her. She is a very large woman that is strong as a man, and has always done hard labor. Her daughter Dee on the other hand is very pretty, dainty, and lady like. Then Maggie, her other daughter, gets her attention and asks her how she looks, and on command comes hobbling into the yard to her mother. Maggie was severely burned during the fire that burned their house years ago and is still scared, hobbles, and is extremely skittish.

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These events scared their personality. Both of the girls were reminded of their mothers when they saw Maggie. This ignited the anger and resentfulness against Maggie. As they grew older they started to despise Maggie more and more. Maggie, to them, was the reflection of their insecurities

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First, Maggie is the child that is shy and timid of the family. She never really received the best things that her sister received. There is know a moment where that is not true and she finally has won to where she gets something that her sister wanted but, finally that did not happen and maggie got it. For example, it says in the story “But they're priceless! " she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. "

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Kids These Days The character Dee in Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” provides a perfect example of the way youthful arrogance can cause an individual to forget and even disgrace his or her own heritage. In the story, the narrator suggests that Dee cares more about achieving social status than honoring her roots. When she returns home from college she is wearing a “dress so loud” that Maggie can feel the warmth that radiates from it, and she wears “earrings gold” that hang “down to her shoulders” (Walker 2).

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A glimpse into Alice Walker’s life reveals itself in one or two personas, arguably, in most of her fictional works. It must be noted that her ideologies pop up in several areas of her creative discourse. Therefore, some bits of her comes into the reader's consciousness, whenever a character speaks or an event occurred. Her ability to write stems from listening to her grandfather's oral stories. This developed the writer in her at the age of eight. .

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Have you ever met someone who always got everything they wanted? Usually, they aren’t the most generous people. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, there’s a family with two daughters who do not get treated evenly. To me, the message that is being conveyed is that you don’t always have to get what you want. Dee is the daughter that gets everything she wants all the time.

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“Every Day Use” by Alice Walker is a great story about a loving but very dysfunctional family. It reminds me a lot of my family, because I have a grandmother much like the mother in the story and an aunt named Yvette who is very similar to the character Dee (Wangero). My grandmother loves all of her children the same, but my aunt Yvette, like Dee, is very high-class and thinks she is above everyone else. I dread going to family events that I know my aunt will also be attending, because she’s always causing chaos and trouble. I hate associating myself with individuals like her; the ones who think the world revolves only around them.

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Dee was shown to fluctuate between interest and disdain for her culture. When she does appreciate her culture, she only wants it for the wrong reasons. Dee wants the butter churner her uncle had made but only to use it for decoration purposes. She gets mad when she hears that Maggie was just going to use the blanket for “everyday use” and not appreciate it for its past. She even renames herself believing that she’ll be more in tune with her culture ignoring the fact that she was named after her aunt and her great grandmother.

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792 Words | 4 Pages

Maggie’s burns and scars are a representation of the African American’s journey through rough, hard times we still face in this time period. The quilt symbolizes each person in the Johnson’s family throughout history being passed down from Mrs. Johnson’s mother to her and now to Maggie, which shows their family’s tradition and culture. Maggie and Mrs. Johnson see it as an ordinary purpose, whereas Dee, being furious and in favor of the black history but not the slave history “you don’t know your heritage” (317) identifies this quilt to have more meaning behind as a representation of her culture that needs to be hanged up in a museum to show people how far the African American culture has come. Ultimately, the African American culture should be embraced as well as the African culture.

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