Fire In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

Mama, a “big boned woman with rough, man-working hands,” awaits her daughter’s (Dee) return in the literary piece Everyday Use (70). When returning home, Dee’s only mission was to ask for two specific quilts with hopes of hanging her heritage on display. Ordinarily Maggie, Dee’s sister, was once a bright, generous, young girl with abundant potential. Explicitly, one day, Maggie was damaged significantly in a fire in which transformed her entire life. The fire turned a once intelligent, social undeveloped girl into a terrified, hopeless juvenile, along with the failed assistance of her family. As children, Dee and Maggie were in a horrific incident as their old house burned to the ground with them still inside. Notably when reflecting on the fire, Mama expresses “sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggie’s arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes” (71). Hence Maggie did not only witness the flames, she experienced them. Consequently, as the structure of the house burned, Maggie burned along with it. Escaping the house as it burned to flames took a toll on Maggie. Expressly, Dee compares Maggie’s intelligence to that of an elephant,

Furthermore, the fire not only took physical aspects of her, but also the parts of Maggie in which completed her. Therefore Maggie wishes she could be more, as she looks upon her sister with a sense of bitterness and astonishment. In spite, she is looked upon on as a lame animal, alongside with being compared to that of an elephant. Not only did the fire demolish her, but also her family smothered her into feeling hopeless. Although displaying great potential, Maggie’s family never looked up to notice that side of her, leaving her to always be considered lower than everyone