Perspectives On Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

Perspectives on “Everyday use” Dee, Maggie, and Hakim-a-barber all had unalike feelings towards the events in the story and how they are expressed will affect the way the story is told. Each character expressed unalike feelings towards the situations which seemed to be based upon their way of life. Dee is a sophisticated woman who has always gotten what she desired, her feelings may be disbelief or perhaps anger. Dee is a shy child who is brimful of fear, so her feelings expressed in the story may inquire thoughts of anger, as well as envy towards her sister. Hakim-a-barber is a young fellow who does not seem to acquire much information about the situation, so his feelings towards the situation may be neutral. The story “Everyday Use” by Alice

She is a child full of fear and envy, mainly towards her sister, who seems to always shun her for not being as intelligent or beautiful like her. The narrator exclaims about this in the story by stating, “Maggie is nervous until her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in the corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe” (1). This envy and awe is more related to her sister’s way of life, it is directed towards how she has always been smarter, prettier, and more educated than her. Maggie’s version of the story would be told with more emotion, which would exhibit her emotions towards the situation, as well as towards her sister as Maggie states in the story, “‘She can have them, momma,’ she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her” (7). The emotional tension here shows that Maggie is accustomed to her sister always getting her way. Maggie feels torn and neglected due to the fact that her sister is about to get another wish fulfilled. As critic Sarnowski states in a review, “The disappointment that Maggie expresses indicates that the quilts do matter to her; even though her sense of heritage cannot be lost with the loss of the quilts, her sense of

The reader describes him in the story by stating, “From the other side comes a short, stocky man. Hair is all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail” (3). Hakim-a-barber is Dee’s husband, and he does not seem to be very interested in what was going on. If the story were to be told by Hakim, it would have lacked detail. He himself seems to not worry about what was going on, he is just a bystander in the short story. Hakim seems to be fond of Dee’s family and seems to aim towards their friendship. The narrator elaborates this in the text by exclaiming, “‘The short stocky fellow with the hair to his navel is all grinning and he follows up with, ‘Asalamalakim, my mother and sister!’ He moves to hug Maggie but she falls back, right up against the back of my chair.” (3) After reading this excerpt from the story it provides deeper information that Hakim is a man who has different beliefs, which lead to his greetings being a little, exotic, than most. This also provides more information on how strange Hakim is, and how he seems to express his ways of being unusual in a fashionable