Everyday Use By Alice Walker Compare And Contrast

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a narrative about a family and their discovery of heritage’s importance. While reading the story after researching the author Alice Walker, readers can unearth both similar and contrasting traits between Walker and her characters Dee and Maggie. “Everyday Use’s” setting is the first aspect reflective of Alice Walker in a huge way. Alice Walker who “lived in poverty” and was “born into a world marked by racism, sexism, and poverty”(Cummings 1) has a similar setting like Dee and Maggie’s. Both Maggie and Dee lived in poverty as their mother “worked outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing” (Walker 19). From the mother's description of getting water and working outside all day, we can infer the family

is not privileged like others as the mom has no real job. In like manner, racism is prevalent as Dee’s mother refers to a white man as “strange”(Walker 19).

In accordance with the definition of strange which is “unfamiliar or foreign”, Mama’s use of this word introduces the notion that blacks and whites were separated. This same idea of similarities is present in the personal experiences of Dee and Maggie. Both Maggie and Alice Walker had an equally destructive incident in their childhood. Maggie was caught in a detrimental fire that resulted in “burn scars down her arms and legs” (Walker 18). Similarly, Alice Walker was blinded in her left eye as a result of a fired BB gun (Cummings 1). Each of these events are very critical and could form new obstacles both physically and mentally. Despite facing harsh obstacles, Dee still makes impressive achievements like Walker. After Dee graduates from high school and leaves home like Walker, she adopts an African name. Sam Whiskitt, author of the African American Review, comments “Walker like Dee has an African name...the name Dee is given, Wangero, is the same name Walker herself was given when she went to Africa” (444). Walker’s character Dee in like manner, adopts the same name she did. These elements in both the characters and author’s lives show that they are parallel in some

ways.

Just like Walker and her characters share similar traits, at the same time they have different traits. Unlike Dee, Alice walker had no intentions of impressing anyone. Alice turned to writing “to express her feelings”(Cummings 1) never as a means of pleasing someone else. Dee’s plan to impress her mother by using her heritage backfires as Maggie is the one who has more knowledge of the family history (Walker 25). Dee always looks for other’s approval while Walker only looked for her own. Another contrasting detail is that Walker was one of eight while Maggie and Dee were the only two (Cummings 1). Dee is very unfearful as “hesitation was no part of her nature” (Walker 19). Walker would avoid making written versions of her poems because she had the impression her brothers would get rid of them (Cummings 1). In the story Dee is this unstoppable human when it comes to her dreams while Alice walker is scared of her brothers. Furthermore, Walker received her degree from Spelman college in Atlanta (Cummings 1) which is not the same as Augusta Georgia where Dee attended school (Walker 20).Both of them made it to college but did not attend the same school. Despite having many similarities, these aspects aided to corroborate the notion Alice Walker and her characters where not all the same. Alice Walker, Dee, and Maggie all have similar habits, experiences and ideas but also have their own unique things in life.