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Everyday Use Literary Analysis

716 Words3 Pages

Sorrell Duffy
Ms. Bellack
September 10, 2016
English 102
Everyday Use
The story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker takes place during the 1960s. This was the time for lifestyle change. During this phase an entire generation of young people fought for social, political, and economic revolution. This same generation was seen to be a nuisance from many of the past generations. Every new generation brings about change, and this was challenging and deemed as unnecessary to the cohorts of the past. Such as in the case of the family relationship in this short story Everyday Use. Mama who is the narrator seems to be struggling with having to choose between her two daughters who have tremendously different personalities and views. Maggie and Dee, are sisters who are as opposite as night and day. Dee brings home generational changes from the urban college life, she even changes her name. Maggie is shy maladjusted and is untouched by …show more content…

This is due to her being severely burned in a house fire when she was a child, her scarred, unpleasant appearance hides her compassionate, generous nature. She lives at home and is protected by her Mama. Mama says, “Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can’t see well. She knows she’s not bright” (Walker 487). So, even though her isolation protects her, she is still a victim of this type of isolation. She suffers from shyness and lack of education. Maggie’s relationship with Dee is filled with jealousy and admiration. Mama mentions how Maggie always thought Dee had been gifted with an easy life. Maggie being sheltered does her a disservice because she can only learn to appreciate the heritage that she’s aware of such as the quilt. She will never know what else is possible because she isn’t concerned about the joys of knowing more. This is why she only wants to put the quilt to everyday use because she doesn’t understand that once they are ruin you can’t get them

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In the beginning of the book Maggie mentions a scar she received after her father left her with her brother alone to go buy cigarettes. She was burned with a hot pot of beans. To her, this action by her father was neglect. She states, “But I wasn’t like my brother. I couldn’t let things go” (Rash 31).

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Reading this story, from Mama’s point of view, limits our ability to understand the viewpoints of the other characters involved. Mama describes Maggie as being “simple and not very bright”, but she may just be very introverted and if you heard this story from Maggie’s vantage point, she may come across as very caring and wise beyond her years due to the tragedies she experienced in losing her home to fire and in being burned. Also, in Dee’s defense she has the right to feel proud in regards to her education and “making it” in the outside world. Her personality is flamboyant and she is portrayed as being highly motivated which contrasts sharply with Mama and Maggie’s personalities. Mama may be misunderstanding her actions due to their very

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Mama is very protective of Maggie. Mama protects Maggie and doesn't expose her to the outside world very much. This makes Maggie awkwardly shy of people. Mama is aware of Maggies limitations and problems are a result of the fire. Even though Mama is strictly protective of Maggie, it shows her love for her.

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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.

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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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Maggie in Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” plays the role of being the nervous and ugly sister of the story, however she is the child with the good heart. Maggie was nervous ashamed of her scars “Maggie was nervous… she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs”. Living in a house with a pretty sister and being the ugly sister with scars could be the reason why she picked up on a timid personality, being ‘ashamed’ of her own skin shaping her in a way that she degraded herself from everybody else. Maggie was not this way before the fire, her mother stated, as it is quoted that she had adopted to a certain walk ever since the fire.

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"She 'd probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use" (320). Dee thinks Maggie would be dumb to keep the quilts for “everyday use”. Also, she figured her family did not know their own heritage. Dee feels as though her sister should “make something of” herself. She states, “It’s really a new day for us” to show that Maggie needs to see a greater amount of the world.

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Maggie is also oppressed by society and Dee, and, though to a further degree than her mother, her view of herself attacks her equality compared to the rest of the world. The subject is immediately introduced. The story begins with Maggie and her mother waiting for Dee. They waste their time in order to be available to Dee as soon as Dee

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She deliberately avoids her and her new sense of self-righteousness. Maggie's lack of exposure to society makes her weak in her sister's eyes and vulnerable to her sister's pretentious attitude toward what is owed to Maggie. Dee disturbs the peace by proclaiming, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!” It is clear that Dee believes that she deserves to receive whatever she wants, yet Maggie never fights for what she is already entitled

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This shows that Maggie views the quilts as a way of remembering her deceased grandmother. It’s not as much about the physical looks of the quilt, but more about them being a passed down memento from her grandmother. In addition, Sarnowski states, “Losing the quilts would not extinguish or reduce Maggie’s sense of heritage, but it would rob her sense of heritage of an affirming token” (Sarnowski 280). Maggie knows what her heritage is and does not necessarily need the quilts to define it. She is happy with the life she lives and although she would be losing this “affirming token” she would still know where she comes

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Ms. Johnson didn't have an education, yet she knew the value of the quilts and she didn’t let a few words from Dee change her decision of giving the quilts to Maggie. Dee leaves her mother’s house quite upset and tells her sister, “You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it” (Walker 12).

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Maggie has a very bad relationship with her bigger sister Dee with jealousy and hatred. Mama always thinks that Maggie lives an unfair life but Maggie never said that. “Maggie asked me mama when Dee ever had friends” (Walker, 317, 14), this quote shows how Maggie is jalousie from Dee, actually dee has friends. When Maggie sees stuff she doesn’t like she hides it and doesn’t talk but when she knew that Dee wanted to take the quilt that mama promised to give her she dropped the plates and smashes the kitchen door very hard.

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This point of view contributes to this story is multiple ways. Mama narrating this story helps to give the reader insight into the past of the characters. Mama was there for everything that happened in the lives of her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. She knows their personalities and how they feel about their heritage and lives. As a result of Mama’s knowledge of these important details, Mama is able to add a contrast between the past and the present.

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