The Two Sisters In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Essay 1

Did you realize that in many family, there is always one child who is so different from the other children? They are not only different from appearance, but also different from many aspects. In Alice Walker's "Everyday use", Walker tells us about her two daughters, Dee and Maggie, are raised by the same parent under the same environment, but turned out as two totally different persons due to many reasons.

In the story, Dee is the different one. She is different from her sister, Maggie. From the outside, she is attractive and in good shape. From the inside, she is confident and intellectual. She is fearless to look people in the eye when she talks. Yet, somehow she is embarrassed by where she was living, she did not want to bring her friends to her home. She always want to get out of get out of poverty. She is the most ambitious among her family. She desired to change her current

situation. Unlike Dee, Maggie is opposite. From the outside, she is homely and thin. From the inside, she is low self-esteem and simple-minded. Walker describes her that she is always "chin on chest". She did not ambitious like Dee, instead she did not try to change anything. She is happy with her simple life. Dee and Maggie are not only different from appearance, but also have different goals and perspective to life.
Despite of Dee seems better Maggie, she is selfish and disrespectful to her family. She left home and went to college. When she came back to visit Walker and Maggie, she told them she changed her named to "Wangero" regardless of the meaning of her name. "Dee" was named after her aunt, Big Dee, and her aunt was named after her grandmother. Yet, she took things which were heritages in the house without thinking they might mean something to her mother and sister. There was a quilt, one of the heritages, that Dee wanted to take it, but meanwhile it mattered to Maggie as well. Dee wanted it so bad and she said disrespectful thing about Maggie to her mother, "'Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!' she said. 'She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.'" (Walker 2) Even Maggie wanted the quilt and Dee said that kind of disrespectful thing about her, she was generous and willing to let Dee has the quilt. Dee might has many things better than Maggie, but Maggie has good moral quality that Dee does not have like respect and generosity.
As mentioned earlier, they both want the priceless quilt that made by their grandmother, their aunt and their mother. However, Dee found the quilt was valuable because she was aware of it was a heritage after she had gone to college. Walker offered her the quilt once before she went to college, but she refused it and told her the quilt was old-fashioned. As for Maggie, she is not materialistic like Dee. Her grandmother and aunt taught her how to quilt. She valued the quilt because she valued the memories. The quilt is priceless to Dee because it is a heritage; the quilt is priceless to Maggie is because it is memorable.
Although Dee and Maggie are completely different, they have one thing in common which is they love each other.

Dee did try to tell her mother and sister that knowledge can make them become better, but she might did not express it well enough to be convincing. "[Dee] used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand." (Walker 2) She did try but she did not succeed, instead she kind of triggered resentment from her mother. Even so, it is an expression of love to her family. Maggie showed her love to Dee when she said Dee could have the quilt while it is important to her too. She is willing to let Dee own it and it is her love to Dee. Even though they have contrast characteristics, but they do in common of one thing that love each

other.
Dee and Maggie are sisters who grew up in the same family but became two opposite persons. Dee turned out getting college education and became better, and Maggie stayed the same spot living with mother. We all know that we should appreciate and content with what we have, but our society becomes more developed day to day, we need to keep up the pace and accept new things and knowledge to upgrade ourselves instead of staying on the same spot. It is a good thing to be ambitious and upgrade living standard, as long as we do not forget or disrespect for what we were at the beginning because that make us who we are.