Everyday Use

The main conflict in Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" might be seen as the choice that the mother needs to make in how she treats her two very different daughters. To me, the...

Instances of simile, metaphor, and implied metaphor appear in "Everyday Use." Figurative language has many effects. One is to make a complex and idea (by nature abstract) spring to life in a more...

Perhaps the key element of the short story, characterization is employed by authors in order to move the action of the plot forward with conflicts and actions that develop the story's theme....

Maggie is "homely," shy, and has scars from her burns. Dee is lighter, "with nicer hair and a fuller figure." Maggie looks at Dee with "envy and awe." Maggie feels that life has always been easier...

The tone of a story concerns the attitude of the narrator or character toward the subject matter or the attitude of the author toward the subject matter. In “Everyday Use,” we would describe tone...

In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the narrator speaks of herself, her home and her two very different daughters. There had been a fire ten or twelve years before that had harmed Mrs. Johnson's...

When Mama tells Dee that she's already promised the family quilts to Maggie, Dee actually calls Maggie "backward" because Maggie would put the quilts to "everyday use." This is precisely what Mama...

Mama, the narrator, ultimately gives the family quilts to Maggie instead of Dee (Wangero) because she recognizes that Dee gets everything she wants, that she's even already claimed the quilts as...

In this short story, Mama has to make a decision about which of her daughters should inherit a couple of quilts, which are really family heirlooms containing pieces of their shared history. No...

Dee wants the old quilts for several reasons but mainly because she wants to display them as part of her "heritage" in her home in the city. She does not believe that they are appreciated in the...

Mrs. Johnson narrates the short story "Everyday Use" and is depicted as a sincere, genuine woman, who loves her children deeply and understands the importance of her family's complex heritage. Mrs....

When Dee/Wangero tells her mother, "You just don't understand...your heritage," she implies that hand-made artistic items in their family should be put on display instead of being used. Even before...

Figures of speech allow speakers to say things more vividly and forcefully than if they were to simply say something directly. Besides having the freshness to their ideas that using figures of...

A good thesis statement will make some kind of arguable claim that can be defended with evidence from the text (i.e. quotations) as well as offer some idea of how that claim will be argued. You...

Maggie believes that Dee has not been exposed to any real struggles, and to some extent, she is jealous of her sister. Maggie is of the opinion that she has sacrificed a lot for her sister’s...

This passage contributes to our understanding of Maggie because it shows that she is a person who knows—and who cares to know and remember—her family's personal history. Her sister, Dee, does not...

I would argue that the setting of this short story is of the utmost importance, because it provides a clear illustration of the different life choices that have been made by Mama, Maggie, and Dee....

The major conflict of "Everyday Use" is between Mama and her daughter, Dee (Wangero). There seems always to have been an antagonism between Dee and Mama and her other daughter, Maggie. Mama...

Mama's relationship with Dee in this story is complex, and the reader senses that it has always been difficult. The way Mama remembers Dee as a child—particularly her memory of Dee's "look of...

One of the most prominent literary techniques that Alice Walker uses in "Everyday Use" is irony. Dee's lack of understanding of her own heritage makes her final comment to her mother ironic when...

In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the quilts represent a static art for Dee, one that can be framed like a museum piece. For Maggie, the quilts have a functional and sentimental beauty, and they...

The primary difference between Dee's attitude and her mother and sister's attitudes can be summed up in Mama's simple statement that "Dee wanted nice things." Mama describes Dee as someone with a...

Mama imagines such a talk show program, where "the mother and father weep, the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would not have made it without their help."...

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," Dee and Maggie share little in common other than their parentage, background, and heritage. Dee and Maggie were both raised in the same lowly home in...

For Mama Johnson, the narrator, the butter churn and the dasher remind her of her family, especially of those individuals who made them by hand. These are items that feel essential to her and her...

The quilts represent an intimate bond to community and family identity for Maggie and Mrs. Johnson. To a great extent, the quilt embodies the personalized connection that both mother and daughter...

In "Everyday Use," Alice Walker explores the theme of cultural identity through depicting a conflict between two sisters, Dee and Maggie, over a family quilt. When the story begins, Dee returns...

At the beginning of the story, mama dreams about having some dramatic reunion with Dee where Dee credits her mother with helping her to achieve her life's goals. While mama is not oblivious to...

Dee did hate the old house, so much so that Mama implies that Dee might have burned it down. Perhaps it's a suspicion that Mama doesn't even realize she has. Symbolically, Dee wears bright colors...

The social conflict in Walker's classic story is between different African American identities. Mrs. Johnson and her daughter Maggie represents a kind of social and historical continuity, while her...

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," Dee is portrayed as a supercilious, progressive woman who outwardly embraces her African heritage and is severely critical of Mama and Maggie's rural...

In some respects, Dee takes so many pictures as a way to reflect her fundamental disconnect with her home. Dee detests her home. Such a sentiment caused her to leave in the first place. When she...

Having embraced Cultural Nationalism, Dee has assumed an African name and dons clothing more reflective of African culture. She arrives not so much to visit her mother and sister but to declare her...

At this moment in “Everyday Use,” Mama had been “hit” with a deep understanding of the nature of her two daughters, and with the knowledge of who the rightful owner of the quilts was. Hearing...

When Dee returns, she seems to have developed quite an interest in certain aspects of her heritage. She seems very interested, now, in her racial heritage; she has changed her name to a much more...

There are some basic similarities between the two mother-daughter relationships. Both daughters receive love and acceptance from their mother. She accepts the girls' very opposite lifestyles. She...

Wangero, the woman formerly known as Dee in Alice Walker's story, is on a quest to find her true identity. For Wangero, the fundamental truth of who she is must be located outside the rural South...

Dee Johnson believes that a person’s heritage has nothing to do with the family tradition. Her interest in the 1970s Black Muslim focuses on African names and dress. What Dee has forgotten is...

One other point is interesting in regard to Walker's choice of "Wangero" as signifying Dee's new African identity (as opposed to her identity with her family):  the name was...

Unfortunately you have asked more than one question. Enotes regulations specifies you are only able to ask one, so I have edited your question to focus on the resolution of the plot. Remember that...

The most basic relationship is that they are sisters. Dee is the older sister, Maggie the younger. However, there is more to them than this. Dee is the star: the family member who went away. She...

The narrative of Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" hovers around the decision of which of a mother's daughters will receive the family's heirloom quilts. Maggie and Dee are the narrator's...

It is arguable that both Dee and the rest of the family see value in the family's possessions, but they do so for radically different reasons. The benches, butter churn, and quilts have all been...

Various conflicts exist between Dee, her mother, and her sister, Maggie. The conflicts that rock the family seem to have started a long time ago. Dee despised their initial house, which got burnt...

In addressing themes of heritage and culture, a conclusion could be made by showing how certain characters interpret those themes. Maggie and Mrs. Johnson appreciate their culture and heritage in a...

The location of the story is never explicitly specified. It takes place on a farm in a rural area. The narrator and her youngest daughter, Maggie, live in small shack with a tin roof in the middle...

Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" provides insight into the importance of heritage and legacy to not only African-American but to all families. There is a problem in this family which stems from two...

In "Everyday Use," it is important that Mama is the narrator: Mrs. Johnson is the narrator of this story, overseeing its events and interpreting, more through her actions than her words, their...

In Alice Walker's short story, "Everyday Use," Dee and Maggie are very different people, which becomes evident as they disagree over two old quilts that both young women want. Dee has left her...

The old house that burned and caused Maggie to be burned and disfigured is symbolic of the older part of their life, the part that Dee wanted to escape so badly. Although she is not happy that...