Tale of a Dysfunctional Family

631 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The Relationship Between The Mother

Even though Dee and Maggie are sisters, they have very different opinions about how the world is. Dee moved away from the county to live in the big city, whereas Maggie still lives with their mother. Dee has also gotten her way and expects it from her family constantly. She's a very attractive, educated, and successful young woman and radiates confidence. Maggie has always been sheltered by her mother and is very shy and introverted. A fire that happened around twelve years ago has left Maggie's body scarred and her confidence crushed. She's unable to look people in the eyes and shuffles about when she walks. Maggie was also not given the same opportunities as Dee and is uneducated. Dee and Maggie's differences in education, personal style and interpretations of their African heritage make it a struggle for them to have a close relationship with one another.
Dee and Maggie are very different in terms of knowledge and education and this makes it hard for them to relate to each other. Mama tries to make Dee happy by raising money through her church so Dee can go to school in Augusta. Whenever Dee comes home, however, she uses her newfound knowledge to intimidate and belittle mama and Maggie. She reads to them " without pity: forcing words, lies, other folk's habits, whole lives upon [them] , sitting trapped and ignorant underneath [her] voice" (Walker 168). Mama was unable to have an education after 2nd grade because her school closed down and she never had a desire to pursue further knowledge. She is always proud of the fact that she can do a man's job and enjoys working on the farm in the hot sun. She can "kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man" (166). Maggie also never receives a formal education, but ca...

... middle of paper ...

...p and their mother's blunt honestly towards their weaknesses, Wangero and Maggie have become very different individuals. The fire and the special opportunities provided to Wangero have made the two sisters unable to relate to each other. Maggie has always felt that Wangero's life has been an easy road and is often jealous of her. Wangero has always felt superior, that Maggie and mama were beneath her because they were uneducated and did not value personal style. Although Dee and Maggie are complete opposites, they still love each other, but their solid differences and their mother's brutal honesty will always keep them in a dysfunctional relationship with one another.

Works Cited

Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." Rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 11th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 166-173. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Dee Quotes From Everyday Use

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Alice Walker’s, “Everyday Use” Dee is one of the daughters of Mama. Mama also has another daughter named Maggie, but she is portrayed not as smart as her sister Dee. When they were growing up Dee used to read to her sister and Mama. She used to read to them ever when they did not want her to. That showed how she was smarter than Maggie and after that Mama started treated them differently.

    Read More

  • Mama And Dee In Everyday Use

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    Maggie is ignorant. Mama and Dee compare Maggie to animals throughout the story stressing the idea of how uneducated she is mentally and or physically. For an example, “Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some .

    Read More

  • A & P and Everyday Use Analysis and Comparison

    1679 Words  | 4 Pages

    Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Compact. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner., and Stephen R. Mandell

    Read More

  • Everyday Use Essay: Sisters with Nothing in Common

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    When two children are brought up by the same parent in the same environment, one might logically conclude that these children will be very similar, or at least have comparable qualities. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," however, this is not the case. The only thing Maggie and Dee share in common is the fact that they were both raised by the same woman in the same home. They differ in appearance, personality, and ideas that concern the family artifacts.

    Read More

  • Comparing Love and Acceptance in I Stand Here Ironing and Everyday Use

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both mothers compare their two daughters to each other.  In Everyday Use the mother tells us that "Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure."  She Fahning -2-speaks of the fire that burned and scarred Maggie.  She tells us how Maggie is not bright, how she shuffles when she walks.  Comparing her with Dee whose feet vwere always neat-looking, as if God himself had shaped them." We also learn of Dee's "style" and the way she awes the other girls at school with it.

    Read More

  • Maggie's Everyday Use

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    As you can see, I strongly agree with the narrator of the story and her choice in giving Maggie the quilts. Dee (Wangero) has been given enough in her life. She has beauty, confidence and her education. Maggie has wonderful qualities too, but has been through hardships. All which make her more deserving of the family quilts.

    Read More

  • Everyday Use

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we meet our narrator, the mother of Maggie and Dee, she is waiting in the yard with Maggie for Dee to visit. The mother takes simple pleasure in such a pleasant place where, "anyone can come back and look up at the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house." (Walker 383) This is her basic attitude, the simple everyday pleasures that have nothing to do with great ideas, cultural heritage or family or racial histories. She later reveals to us that she is even more the rough rural woman since she, "can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man." (Walker 383) Hardly a woman one would expect to have much patience with hanging historical quilts on a wall. Daughter Maggie is very much the opposite of her older sister, Dee. Maggie is portrayed as knowing "she is not bright." (Walker 384)

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast I Stand Here Ironing And Everyday Use

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this story, Maggie is a lot like her mother. They both are uneducated, loving, caring, and allow Dee to run over them. Maggie has been through more things than her mother has though, because of the incident that happened. Maggie has scars like Emily, except Maggie’s scars are from a house fire (319). The house fire has impacted Maggie’s life tremendously, since she is very self-conscious and shy. Walker stated that Maggie is “ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs (318). The mother is protective of Maggie and will be there for her whenever she needs her too. Even though her mother knows all her struggles, she still supports her and pushes her to be better. I think that is one reason she pushes her to marry John Thomas, because she wants her to become her own person and to be strong (319). The mother of “Everyday Use” is opposite from the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing”, because she is there for her children no matter what their financial status

    Read More

  • Everyday Use by Alice Walker

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walker shows that in mother and daughter relationships adaptation to change can be hard in a variety of ways. First, Dee, Mother's oldest daughter, comes home to visit her mother and little sister Maggie. When she shows up, she introduces herself as "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo" (416). Her mother is confused about why she wants to change her name, since it was the one that was passed down. Dee explains that the other name did not suit her. Now even though Mother reluctantly goes along with this new name, it is obvious that she is not used to changing names, especially if it is one of great family importance. Another character that that has a hard time changing along with Mother is Maggie. When Mother sent Dee to a good school where she could get a very good education, Dee used to come back and try to teach her lowly, uneducated family members. Maggie and her Mother were not used to this, and they were happy with the education that they had. Instead, Dee "read to us without pity; forcing words, lies other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice" (413) and tried t...

    Read More

  • The Character of Dee in Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dee's physical beauty can be defined as one of her biggest assets. The fact that Maggie sees Dee "with a mixture of envy and awe" (409) cues the reader to Dee's favorable appearance. The simplistic way in which Walker states that "Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure" (410) gives the reader the idea that Dee's beauty has made it easier for her to be accepted outside her family in society. We are left with the impression that Dee's appearance is above average. Walker plays on Dee's physical beauty to contrast the homeliness of Maggie and her mother. Walker goes so far as to describe her feet as "always neat-looking, as if God himself had shaped them with a certain style" (411). In describing Dee's feet, Walker is giving the impression of perfection from head to toe. Dee's outward beauty has "made her transition from poor farm girl to that of an educated, middle-class black woman possible" (Allen-Polley 11). Needless to say, Dee doesn't seem comfortable with her past and therefore has a difficult time accepting her future. It is as though she is not really connected with her family anymore. She simply needs them to fulfill their positions in her recreated past.

    Read More

  • Everyday Use by Alice Walker

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dee, (Wangero) is a self ? centered young woman who ?manages? to come for a visit. Unlike Maggie, she is not living her cu...

    Read More

  • Family Heritage In Everyday Use

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    The differences in attitude that Dee and Maggie portray about their heritage are seen early in the story. When the family's house burned down ten or twelve years ago, Maggie was deeply affected by the tragedy of losing her home where she grew up. As her mother describes, "She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground" (409). Dee, on the other hand, had hated the house. Her mother had wanted to ask her, "Why don't you dance around the ashes?" (409). Dee did not hold any significance in the home where she had grown up. In her confusion about her heritage, it was just a house to her.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Dee finds out that her mama promise to give the quilts to her sister, Dee gets very angry and says that she deserves the quilts more than Maggie because Maggie would not take care of them like she would. Dee feels that she can value and treasure heritage more than her sister Maggie. Dee does what she wants, whenever she wants and she will not accept the word no for any answer. “She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.” Maggie is used to never getting anything. Throughout the entire story, it says that Maggie gives up many things so Dee can have what she needs or

    Read More

  • everyday use

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    She tries to force "other folkways habits" on Mrs. Johnson and Maggie. In the story, you see how mama narrates that she pressed them in the serious way she reads, only to shove them away at the moment they seemed about to understand(10). Dee acts superior to her mom and Maggie and also treats them like dimwits because of their illiteracy. I think its best that one is intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy because they are different. In the story, Mrs. Johnson and Maggie are not portrayed as ignorant people, but illiterates who do not have the kind or experience Dee has.

    Read More

  • A Psychological Analysis of Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Sixth edition. Eds. X.J. Dennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 1995.

    Read More

More about Tale of a Dysfunctional Family

Open Document