Discussion Topic
Mama, Maggie and Dee Dynamics and Character Conflicts in "Everyday Use"
Summary:
In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the relationship between sisters Maggie and Dee reflects contrasting values and identities. Dee, the older sister, embraces a modern, African heritage and seeks a sophisticated lifestyle, often condescending towards Maggie, who remains loyal to their rural, familial traditions. Their mother, Mama, supports Maggie's connection to their lived heritage, symbolized by the quilts. The setting—a simple, rural home—mirrors Mama's contentment with simplicity, contrasting with Dee's pursuit of cultural artifacts for display rather than practical use.
Describe the relationship between Maggie and Dee in "Everyday Use".
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 left the family’s modest rural home, and embraced the waves of change that were moving through America. She represents a specific current of African American identity; she chooses an African heritage and a new name: “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo.” She is proud of who she is, and of the conscious choices she’s made.
Maggie, by contrast, stayed at home. She’s quiet and shy, and scarred from the fire. She doesn’t have the same sort of pride that Dee has, but she is loyal to her lived and experienced heritage, something their mother endorses by giving her the quilt.
Dee is determined and successful. She aims to be a modern woman who...
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is worldly, cultured, and educated. When she goes to college, she learns of her African heritage and embraces it, thus supplanting her African-American heritage. Dee is progressive but her interests in modernity and cultural heritage (both African and American) seem a bit too superficial. Still, she does try to educate her mother and sister, Maggie, even if they don't want to listen.
Maggie is Dee's younger sister. Maggie was burned in a house fire and is incredibly shy. These two traits may account for Maggie's reserved personality. She has no real interest in Dee's progressive worldview, or maybe she is just too shy to attempt to live in that world.
Dee has tried to instruct Maggie (and her mother) in a more feminist, modern way of life for American women. So, there is something of the guiding, big sister in the way she relates to Maggie. When Dee arrives, Maggie is concerned with how she looks, so there is some part of her that looks up to Dee. But Dee also seems to flaunt her new way of life and she is condescending towards Maggie, basically calling her ignorant and backward. As Dee is leaving, she says, "You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it." Deep down, Dee might have good intentions in trying to open Maggie's eyes to a new, better way of life. But her approach is too domineering and almost scolding. Maggie is too shy to talk back to her. When Dee insists on taking the quilts, Maggie "looked at her sister with something like fear but she wasn't mad at her." This look of "something like fear" is vague but suggestive. Maybe Maggie's subtle look indicates that she is fed up with the entire subject of the quilts. It is her shy way to simply relent and end the discussion.
Two sisters, Dee and Maggie, are the focal characters in the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker. The two daughters are quite different in appearance and personality. Despite growing up in the same family, they live entirely different lives. Maggie is rural and follows many of her family's long-honored traditions, while Dee has chosen to leave behind her rural heritage and instead embrace African tribal traditions.
In "Everyday Use," Walker highlights differences between the sisters as a way to develop the contrast between the life each has chosen. In comparing the sisters, it is easy to find differences between them. Maggie keeps her birth name, while Dee changes hers to Wangero. Maggie lives at home; Dee does not. Maggie has a limp, but Dee does not. Maggie has chosen to follow the traditions of her family, while Dee decides to affiliate herself with African tribal traditions instead. Maggie is content where she is; Dee is restless and seeks satisfaction outside of what her family's rural life can give her.
Though the sisters chose different life paths, the system that directed them into each of their respective roles is what they share in common. Arguably, each sister is in her current position as a result of the tumultuous social climate of the 1960s. Walker's writing about that time polarizes African-American women's options into two choices: embrace the past or forget it. The African-American community faced a wide reconsideration of its identity, and Dee and Maggie represent two directions African-American women could choose to go in that moment. The sisters are similar in that their respective lives are results of the social climate at that time. What they share is their heritage and the future they must decide to live, with or without that heritage.
The short story "Everyday Use" is primarily based on the characterization of Dee, the narrator, and Maggie. Dee woks as a character foil for both Maggie and the narrator, who is the mother of the two girls.
Maggie is very timid and shy. She does not possess the looks that Dee does. "Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure." Maggie was badly burned in the fire that took their old house and has never entirely recovered. Maggie is described by her mother who says, "have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. 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."
Dee, on the other hand, is brave and outgoing. "She would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature." Dee is also very intelligent and uses this to belittle the other two characters. "She 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 . . . to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand."
How would you describe Mama's relationship with Dee in "Everyday Use"?
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 concentration" as she watched their first house burn down—suggests that she has never particularly liked or understood Dee, although she does love her. Mama's sympathies lie with her other daughter, Maggie, and because she "used to think Dee hated Maggie too," Mama's protectiveness of Maggie seems to have increased her wariness of Dee.
Dee's education seems to have furthered the wedge between herself and her family, Mama feeling that she and Maggie sat "trapped and ignorant underneath her voice." The more educated Dee becomes, the more her mother feels distanced from her. We know that Mama wants to support Dee in her choices—when Dee announces that she has changed her name, Mama is supportive of this choice, although she doesn't understand it: "If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you." However, it is clear that Mama feels rejected and baffled by the fact that Dee has chosen to hark back to an African heritage beyond living memory, while in the process rejecting the years of heritage represented by all the Dees who have preceded her in Mama's family. Dee is searching for her heritage, but all her education seems to have led her to look straight past the fact that her mother is the strongest link to that heritage she has.
In her act of removing the quilts from Dee's hands and giving them to Maggie, Mama exerts her will in an act of independence against her daughter's overbearing sense of her own cleverness which, one suspects, has been brewing for some time.
Mama and Maggie are very close. Mama is protective over Maggie because Maggie is painfully shy and does not stand up for herself. Maggie was also burned in the fire that destroyed their former house, so she is ashamed of her skin that was burned. She has both physical and emotion scars from it. Mama and Maggie depend on one another for love and support because Dee doesn't live with them. Dee's life has changed so much since she moved to "the city"; Mama and Maggie hardly recognize her anymore. As a result of this, Mama and Maggie realize that they are all each other has and they must look out for each other.
What are the similarities between Mama and Dee in "Everyday Use"?
Mama and Dee are both strong-willed and determined; Mama's determination is reflected in how she meets the challenges in her life headlong. On her own, she can kill and butcher a hog, endure freezing weather outdoors, and kill a bull calf and hang it to preserve its meat. She perseveres after a fire claims her home and scars her other daughter, and she works to raise money to educate Dee in the city. She raises two daughters on her own. She is indomitable.
Dee is also strong-willed and determined; however, her determination is expressed differently than her mother's. In fact, her mother describes Dee as "determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts." Dee is determined to reinvent herself. She adopts an African name, telling her mother that she didn't want to be "named after the people who oppress me."
Inevitably, these two strong-willed women clash. Dee wants to take some family heirlooms, including handmade quilts, as cultural artifacts to be displayed. This offends her mother, who gives the quilts to Dee's younger sister, Maggie, who will put them to "everyday use."
In "Everyday Use," Mama and Dee do not share the same values, and each lives a very different lifestyle from the other. However, one could argue that both women have a sense of pride in the lives that they lead and that this sense of pride is unshakable. At the beginning of the story, Mama reveals through the privacy of first-person narration that she has dreamed of being a different woman, one of whom her daughter Dee would be proud. However, Mama has never in reality tried to be that imagined person, and she seems content with the life that she leads. Mama is humble in her description of herself, giving the honest details of her "large, big-boned" structure. Mama makes decisions based on her own view of cultural heritage, hence her decision to give the quilts to Maggie. Similarly, Dee has always wanted "nice things," and her style of dress and educational pursuits have reflected this aspect of Dee's personality. She has never liked the Johnsons' lifestyle, so as an adult, Dee has found a path that is better suited for her. Both Mama and Dee share their differing views on culture, but they will not bend to appease the other.
Compare the relationships of the mother with her daughters, Dee and Maggie, in "Everyday Use".
Both mother-daughter relationships begin in the same place - in a simple home in the rural South. The mother clearly loves both daughters. She protects and cares for the simpler Maggie, and she is proud of her successful daughter Dee and looks forward to her visit.
Additionally, she seems to want to be fair to both daughters, to treat them equally. She accomodates Dee's name change and seems to accept her very different lifestyle and choice of partners. She agrees to give Dee a butter churn so that she can turn it into decorative art. Similarly, she protects Maggie's quilts from becoming wall hangings and denies Dee what she has already promised her other daughter.
The differences in the relationships come from the similarities between Maggie and her mother. Maggie has remained in the home, following similar patterns of behavior and lifestyle whie Dee has gone of to school and moved away. Maggie seems to respect the simple, rustic life that Dee has clearly abandoned. Finally, Dee has been able to succeed on her own; she has strength and intelligence and beauty. Maggie is not so lucky. She has been disfigured in a fire, is not bright and has come to accept that she is a relatively luckless woman. Mothers tend to protect these "weaker" children.
Your question goes to the heart of this short story, and key to understanding what it is trying to say is understanding the relationships between Mama, Maggie and Dee. Consider how Maggie is introduced in the first paragraph:
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: She will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She think 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.
This quote clearly establishes some of the central differences between the two sisters. Dee is confident, outgoing, ambitious and determined to make something of life, whereas Maggie is shy, reclusive and passive. Consider how the narrator describes her daughter as a "lame animal" who sidles "up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him". Maggie, described in this fashion, is clearly painted as someone who has such a low sense of self-worth that they are amazed that anyone would actually want to talk to her.
However, the narrator says of Dee, "Hesitation was no part of her nature":
She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts... At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was.
It is clear then that Dee is incredibly self-confident and self-assured. She, as is amply evidenced later in the story, knows what she wants and will not stand for anyone getting in her way, which makes the narrator's decision to not give into her all the more remarkable.
One of the key events in the short story that reveals Mama's character is her refusal to give Dee what she wants, and her insistence that Maggie receives the quilts. It is clear that she loves both of her daughters, but is exasperated by both of them in different ways. However, her decision to give the quilts to Maggie rather than Dee indicates what a high value she places on the family heritage and history, of which the quilts are a symbol. Note too that this is the heritage that Dee has rejected and turned her back on.
Mrs. Johnson is a mother who has spent her life raising two daughters, trying to give them a sense of where they come from and what is important in life.
Dee is more intelligent and forward-thinking, and she goes off to school and eventually settles in the city to work.
Maggie is not as motivated or pretty as Dee, but she is a good person. She has chosen to stay home, and is now getting ready to marry.
Three generations are presented in this story. Though Grandma Dee is dead, the possession of her quilts comes into question. She is the a woman who represents a source of strength and cultural pride for this family. I think Mrs. Johnson has the same values as she raises her daughters--who both had a relationship with their grandmother before she died.
Dee goes off "to the big city," and tries to leave her "roots" behind her. It's safe to say that her mother is puzzled by Dee's intolerance of her ancestors' history in the United States; this change is evident when Dee chooses an African name and can find no good that has come at the hands of those [whites] who have oppressed her and her people. It's as if Mrs. Johnson doesn't quite know who her daughter has become.
Maggie, on the other hand, has stayed close to home, not just physically but philosophically as well. She is still rooted in the generations that have come before her. She is a proud young woman who seems to be more grounded in the true importance of family. It is easier for Mrs. Johnson to connect to this daughter who has not walled herself away from her heritage.
When Dee announces that she wants the family quilts, made by the hands of previous generations, Mrs. Johnson is surprised (because of Dee's new stance on "family") and now confronted with a dilemma. Maggie had asked to have the quilts.
Dee does not want them for their familial significance, but because they would look nice in her home. Maggie wants them specifically because of the attachment she feels to her family and her heritage through the quilts.
Mrs. Johnson, isn't quite sure what to do. Maggie finally agrees that Dee can have the quilts, stating that she does not need the physical presence of these things in her life to help her feel connected to her family's past, especially Grandma Dee.
As Mrs. Johnson looks at her daughters throughout the debate, she decides that she know which daughter would really find having them meaningful, and so gives them to Maggie.
Mrs. Johnson has raised two daughters, and done well by them. However, the attachment between herself and Dee, and the relationship she has with Maggie, are totally different. Dee can see things only in terms of today, while Maggie keeps one foot in the past, remembering, fondly, the line from which she has "sprung."
Mrs. Johnson will have a closer relationship with Maggie who has not forgotten where she comes from, than with Dee, who wants nothing else but to leave her heritage behind her.
In "Everyday Use," how are Maggie and Dee similar and different?
Seen through the eyes of their mother, Dee and Maggie have more differences than similarities. Dee's very presence makes Maggie uncomfortable; their mother notes that Maggie will "stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe." While Dee seems to thrive, living a life that never says no to her, Maggie merely survives it with the support of her mother. She is neither bright nor beautiful, and she has spent her life living in the shadow of Dee's successes.
Dee felt it her duty when younger to try to better educate her sister (and mother), forcing Maggie to sit and listen to a "lot of knowledge [she] didn't necessarily need to know." Unlike her sister, Dee wants nice things from an early age and tells her mother that she could never bear to bring her "friends" to see where her family lives. Maggie is most comfortable in her home with her mother, enjoying the security that it allows her.
The sisters also differ in their appreciation of their ancestry. Dee only wants to claim those parts of their ancestry from long ago, such as Grandma Dee's dress and Great Grandpa Ezra's Civil War uniform; she wishes to ignore her more immediate claims to ancestry, including being named after her Aunt Dee. She wishes to take the quilts and hang them with pride as a living symbol of her family's culture. Maggie doesn't have prideful ambition in mind for the quilts; she claims that she can remember their grandmother without the quilts and even offers to let Dee take them, an act of generosity that Dee would never have extended. Dee claims that Maggie is too simple to truly appreciate the value of the quilts and would put them to everyday, common use. She doesn't realize that Maggie finds value in the ordinary, not the extravagant.
Besides being sisters and sharing a common love for artifacts of their history, the two don't share many similarities. The story's focus on the differences between Dee and Maggie is meant to further the significance of their mother's decision about the quilts in the end.
In "Everyday Use," Dee and Maggie are foils:
- Dee is beautiful; Maggie is ugly.
- Dee is well-educated; Maggie is slow.
- Dee is trendy; Maggie is plain.
- Dee is on-the-go; Maggie is a homebody.
- Dee is chatty; Maggie is quiet.
- Dee is self-serving; Maggie is humble.
In literary terms, Dee is the alazon, an impostor who thinks she is better than she really is. Maggie is an eiron, a self-deprecator who is better than she really is. Dee is like the wicked step-mother and step-sisters and Maggie is like Cinderella.
By Mama's standards, Dee betrays her family's culture by trading it in for the pseudo-African one. By changing her name, clothes, and identity, Dee does not deserve the family heirlooms (quilt). Maggie, because she sews and cleans and cooks without compliant, is more like Big Dee (her grandmother) and, therefore, preserves her culture and is awarded the quilts and title of future matriarch of the family.
Really, apart from the fact that they are sisters, the text establishes little similarity between Maggie and Dee. Consider how Maggie is introduced in the first paragraph:
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: She will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She think 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.
This quote clearly establishes some of the central differences between the two sisters. Dee is confident, outgoing, ambitious and determined to make something of life, whereas Maggie is shy, reclusive and passive. Consider how the narrator describes her daughter as a "lame animal" who sidles "up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him". Maggie, described in this fashion, is clearly painted as someone who has such a low sense of self-worth that they are amazed that anyone would actually want to talk to her.
However, the narrator says of Dee, "Hesitation was no part of her nature":
She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts... At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was.
It is clear then that Dee is incredibly self-confident and self-assured. She, as is amply evidenced later in the story, knows what she wants and will not stand for anyone getting in her way, which makes the narrator's decision to not give into her all the more remarkable.
In "Everyday Use", how does the narrator feel about her daughters Dee and Maggie?
When Dee confronts her mother about wanting the family quilts, Maggie eventually says that Dee can have them, though Mama has explained to Dee that she had already promised them to Maggie for her wedding. Maggie speaks "like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her." She seems somewhat resigned to the idea that Dee gets everything while she gets relatively little in comparison. Maggie even learned to quilt from her grandmother and aunt because she cared about it long before Dee purported to. Maggie "looked at her sister with something like fear but she wasn't mad at her. This was Maggie's portion. This was the way she knew God to work." So, it sounds like Maggie does feel a little fearful of Dee, as she even hides her "scarred hands" in her skirt, but I think it is more accurate to describe her as resigned to Dee; she knows that Dee will always win, that Dee gets to be beautiful and smart and demanding and confident, and she does not. Of course, Mama shocks her when she hands the quilts over to Maggie, insisting that Dee cannot have them.
Given that the story is told through the mother's perspective, we see two very different women through her eyes, and certainly two very different impressions of these women.
Dee is the ambitious, beautiful, popular, and driven daughter. Mrs. Johnson's day dream of meeting Dee on a TV show and having her daughter pin an orchid on her dress (a gesture of thanks and acceptance) show that she both loves her daughter very dearly, and resents her a little. She feels rejected by this daughter for not being "feminine" enough, or "smart" enough, or simply not "enough." But given the way she treats her (allowing her to come home and eat, taking an interest in Dee's new boyfriend, imagining a time when their relationship is mended) it is obvious that the narrator does love her daughter Dee and even takes pride in her intelligence, beauty, and ambition.
On the other hand, Maggie is just as rejected as the narrator. Mrs. Johnson loves her unconditionally, perhaps because no one else does. It seems like Mrs. Johnson and Maggie only have each other. Mrs. Johnson provides the love and protection that this daughter would otherwise never receive. Though her sister Dee has clearly been the dominant personality in the house for years (and likely both mother and sister have allowed it), in the end, the narrator stands up for Maggie by giving her the quilts. This simple act of devotion and protection shows the narrator's unconditional love for Maggie.
What causes tension between Dee and Mama in "Everyday Use"?
Another cause of the tension between Mama and Dee is the vast difference in their lifestyles. While Mama has always admired Dee's sense of style, it has also been a point from which Dee, who later renames herself "Wangero," looks down upon her mother and her sister, Maggie. This becomes particularly apparent at the end of the novel, when Dee, who has adopted Afrocentrism, uses it to illustrate the supposed backwardness of her mother's and sister's lives in rural Georgia.
Dee seizes the quilts and looks at her mother "with hatred" when Mama fails to understand the historical significance of the quilts that Dee wishes to take. Mama decides to give Maggie the quilts that Dee wanted, refusing to allow Maggie to, once again, succumb to her sister's stronger will. In response, Dee says that her mother doesn't understand her heritage. For Dee, "heritage" is something that is to be put on display; for her mother and Maggie, heritage is something with which they live everyday, though they do not make a point about it.
Dee then kisses Maggie goodbye and tells her that she should make something of herself: "It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it." Dee makes a distinction here between her own generation and that of her mother, which has less of an interest in or awareness of Dee's concept of heritage, a notion that is predicated on proud display. She also subtly insults Mama's and Maggie's simpler way of life, which indicates Walker's use of irony in the plot: Dee is dismissive of the lifestyle and social conditions that produced the quilts in the first place. Despite her supposed love for black culture displayed through her Afrocentric clothing and her name change, Dee still looks down upon black people who do not share her privileges in class and education.
In "Everyday Use," the tension between Mama and Dee is caused by the differing opinions on how best to honor the Johnsons' family heritage. Mama believes that it is best to honor the family by putting the items that they have made to "everyday use": the butter churner, for example, was whittled by Uncle Buddy from a tree on the Johnsons' land, and Mama clearly uses the churner--when Dee arrives the milk in the churner has already turned to clabber. Dee, however, believes that items made by the family should be preserved as artifacts, and she wants to take several items home with her to use as decoration. Mama thinks that not using items for their intended purpose is disrespectful, while Dee thinks that allowing the items to go into disrepair is equally disrespectful. So the two continue to have a contentious relationship because they have differing values.
What was the mother's relationship like with Dee in 'Everyday Use'?
The relationship between Dee and her mother seems to have always been estranged. The relationships that Dee had with everyone in the past seemed to be distanced. Dee did not fit or belong in this setting. The narrator comments about how she actually believed that Dee hated her own sister Maggie. At the beginning of the story, the narrator recalls her dream of meeting Dee on a television show; however, in the narrator looks the way Dee has always wanted her to look, "a hundred pounds lighter, [her] skin like an uncooked barley pancake. [Her] hair glistens in the hot bright lights." This fantasy shows that Dee has always wanted her mother to be something she is not. It signifies a dissatisfaction with her mother. The narrator also states that Dee "used to read to us without pity forcing words, lies, other folk's habits, whole lives, upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice." She continues to state that Dee would read to her and Maggie and then "Shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand." This points to a superiority issue that Dee has with her mother and Maggie.
It is right to commend Dee (Wangero) for embracing her African heritage. However, there is some speculation that she has embraced this heritage because it had become fashionable. Dee has been to college and learned of this heritage and how it is important to reclaim it from an historically repressive white society. This is well and good if she has chosen to embrace this heritage for political and ethical reasons. But most or all of her behavior indicates that her main motivation is to be fashionable. So, it is possible that this new love for African heritage is based on doing what's popular.
The same can be said for her behavior growing up with her mother and sister. In fact, her mother, Mrs. Johnson, says:
Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she'd made from an old suit somebody gave me.
Dee does have ambition. She does read to her mother and sister in order to make them more historically knowledgeable. And she is productive in styling her own clothes. But her interest revolves around fashion and "nice things" as her mother notes. When she returns and asks for the quilts, it is clear she wants to use them as a fashion statement. When she leaves, she tells Maggie to make something of herself and that "it really is a new day for us" (women). This is directed at both her mother and sister. Dee/Wangero has always tried to be a modern woman and it is clearly evident in her parting lines here. Dee was probably focused on the same things while she was growing up: the desire to be modern, fashionable, and in style. This attitude would have clashed with her mother who was and is more traditional and more interested in practical living.
How does Dee treat Mama and Maggie in "Everyday Use"?
Dee treats Mama and Maggie with a degree of scorn and derision. It seems that the visit that she and Hakim-a-barber make to the family home is partly out of a sense of obligation but predominantly to see what could be garnered from the family home to become trendy décor in Dee's home.
The first sign of Dee creating a stark contrast between her life and that of her mother and sister is when she steps out of the car and starts snapping photos, as though she is a tourist in a foreign land.
After lunch, Dee embarks on a "shopping spree" through Mama and Maggie's home, picking out items she thinks will add decorative value to her home. While no one objects to her taking the churn top and dasher, she starts a family argument when she states that she should have the family heirloom quilts because they will be far better used as décor in her own home than they would be being put to "everyday use" by Maggie.
The final sting in the tail of Dee's visit is when she lectures her mother about how she understands her heritage better than Mama does and when she tells Maggie to do something with her life, completely failing to perceive the satisfaction with which Mama and Maggie live their simple lives.
What conflicts exist between Dee, her mother, and sister in Everyday Use?
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 down. On the contrary, her mother liked the house and was saddened by the fact that it got destroyed in a fire. This shows that Dee and her mother have conflicting ideologies and preferences when it comes to the kind of life each wants to live. The conflict in ideology and preferences within the family is evident in different instances in the story. For example, Dee’s value for education conflicts with her mother’s ideology about the same. The author indicates that
Dee’s mother resented the intimidating world of ideas and education that Dee forced on her family during her trips home.
Dee’s mother and her sister, Maggie, did not hold the same value for education as Dee did. According to the story, her mother had not gone beyond the second grade, whereas Maggie could only read in a limited capacity. Additionally, Dee and her sister Maggie had not been close to each other since their childhood. Maggie always felt intimidated by Dee, and their mother had to grip Maggie to prevent her from running back into the house when Dee arrived home. The conflict between the two sisters is further evident when Dee insists on taking the quilts that their mother had reserved for Maggie. Dee describes Maggie as not being smart enough to be able to preserve the quilts. This is a further depiction of the conflict in ideology between the two sisters. However, at this juncture, their mother decides to take Maggie’s side and stamps her authority as to whom the quilts belong. Thus, the story is characterized by the conflicting ideologies of Dee, Maggie, and their mother.
How does Maggie change after Dee's visit in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"?
Initially, Maggie is portrayed as a timid girl with low self-esteem who views her older sister with reverence and fear. Unlike Maggie, Dee is a confident, attractive, educated young woman who comes across as arrogant and superior. When Dee first arrives, Maggie cowers behind her mother, who can feel her trembling. Maggie refuses to even lift her eyes to look at Dee and feels more comfortable staring at the ground. Mrs. Johnson compares Maggie to a "lame animal" and recognizes that she is not as bright or charismatic as Dee. When Dee and Hakim-a-barber enter Mama's home, Dee takes note of the traditional benches and the antique churn top, which she believes will make a remarkable centerpiece.
Dee then enters the bedroom and proceeds to pull out two old quilts, which were handcrafted by Grandma and Big Dee. When Dee asks her mother for the quilts, Mama explains that she promised to give them to Maggie when she marries John Thomas. When Dee insists that Maggie will simply put the antique quilts to "everyday use," Mama defends her daughter by saying that she hopes Maggie will put them to use and refuses to give them to Dee. Dee leaves the house upset and comments that Mama and Maggie do not understand their heritage.
As Dee puts on her sunglasses, Mama describes Maggie's expression by noticing that her smile is a "real smile, not scared," which illustrates her change of character. After witnessing her mother stand up to Dee on her behalf, Maggie gains confidence and self-assurance. Unlike Dee, Maggie and Mama possess a firm understanding of their heritage by genuinely valuing the items their ancestors made. Maggie and Mama recognize that a true appreciation and tribute to their ancestors involves putting their traditional items to use. Overall, Maggie changes from a timid, meek woman into a confident, self-assured individual who genuinely understands and appreciates her heritage in a way Dee can never comprehend.
In "Everyday Use," what do Dee and Maggie have in common, and how are they different?
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 rural Georgia, which burned down when they were young. Unfortunately, Maggie was severely injured during the house fire and is scarred from the traumatic incident.
Dee and Maggie also share the same heritage but have significantly different ideas on how they view and honor their ancestors. Dee does not inherently value the handmade items of her ancestors and is interested in the churn and antique quilts because they align with the current social trend of the time. Dee plans on displaying the traditional artifacts in her home and simply views them as interesting decorations with historical significance. In contrast, Maggie attaches sentimental value to the quilts and views her heritage as a living legacy, which she is very much a part of. Maggie's connection to her family's heritage and traditions is more immediate than Dee's and she plans on putting the antique quilts to everyday use.
In regards to personalities and lifestyles, Dee and Maggie could not be more different. Dee is portrayed as an outspoken, confident woman, who is educated and slightly arrogant. In contrast, Maggie is unattractive, timid, and uneducated. Maggie also struggles with self-esteem issues and fears her intimidating older sister. When Dee comes to visit, Maggie does not look her in the eye and attempts to hide behind Mama for the majority of the visit. Although she is upset that Dee requests to have the handmade quilts, Maggie is willing to give them away to appease her domineering sister. Despite Maggie's lowly description and timid nature, Alice Walker portrays her in a more positive light than Dee because of her sincerity and deep understanding of her family's heritage, which is something that Dee cannot comprehend.
What is the narrator's relationship with Dee in "Everyday Use"?
In "Everyday Use," the narrator, Mama, has a contentious relationship with her daughter Dee. At the beginning of the story, Mama imagines that she is a guest on a talk show as a person who presents as acceptable to Dee--polished, refined, educated. However, Mama describes herself in reality as having masculine qualities--rough hands and a large build suitable for working in the fields. Mama says that Dee never liked the lifestyle that the Johnson family led, and Dee seemed happy when the old house burned down, erasing a symbol of the family's working class background. Dee leaves for school, and Mama feels like Dee has always thought she was too good for the family. Even when Dee returns to visit, the tension between the two continues and is evidenced in the argument regarding the quilts. Dee and Mama have opposing ideas on how best to honor the Johnson family's heritage, and the two cannot come to an agreement.
How are Maggie and Dee alike in "Everyday Use"?
Both girls come from the same background, and they are both beautiful in their own ways...Dee more ostentatious and outgoing, Maggie in a spiritual and loyal way due to her scars and low self-esteem.
Both girls are interested in the quilts and butter churn and other items which constitute their "history", but for different reasons. Dee wants to put them on a wall or on a shelf to be admired as a long-lost art and part of the past, while Maggie knows how to make these items and she wants them to remember her past but also to make a present and future. These items are part of her wedding dowry, and she is connected and grounded to the part of herself and her family heritage which created them.
They are also alike in their tempers, although it takes much more to get Maggie angry than Dee. Dee is used to being deferred to and getting what she wants--she is beautiful and smart, and she takes matters into her own hands when they aren't going her way (take the burning of the house she hated which scarred Maggie for instance). Maggie is not used to getting her way since her sister was always in the limelight. Maggie did not go to school, does not dress in colorful attention-getting African garb, and does not have a fancy boyfriend, but she does slam a door which indicates her feelings about the quilts and butter churn her sister has come to claim out fromunder Maggie's feet. The temper has flared, and Maggie gets her quilts.
In "Everyday Use," how does Mama perceive Dee's differences from her and Maggie?
Dee is quite different from Mama and Maggie for several reasons. Early in the story, Mama imagines appearing on a Johnny Carson talk show but then dismisses the idea, suggesting it would be beyond her to look a "strange white man" in the eye. This is not the case for Dee. Dee has no "hesitation" in her nature. We have already seen that Maggie, who is "nervous" and hangs back even in the presence of her sister, is extremely hesitant; Dee is somebody who takes what she wants from life on her own terms.
Dee is also physically different from her mother and sister. In terms of her skin tone, she is "lighter" and her hair is "nicer." This correlates with the desire she has always had for "nice things," nice clothes, and a good education. At Mama's own admission, Dee's desire for nice clothes makes Mama want to "shake" her older daughter, and Mama herself does not have an education because she grew up in an era which was even worse for black people than the current one, and her school was closed down when she was still a child.
Consequently, Dee's outlook on life is rather different from Mama's. Mama knows that Dee looks down on their house to the extent of wanting to tear it down; her desire to escape her circumstances and improve herself has led her to rename herself and reject the social norms her family lives by.
For Maggie, Mama's house is home. Is it a place of safety, where she doesn't have to hide or feel badly about herself (until Dee comes). Mama describes the way she and Maggie cleaned up their home and yard yesterday to prepare for Dee; she says, "A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room." This is the perception that Mama and Maggie have. They are comfortable in their home when it is just the two of them, so after Dee leaves, we see this again. Mama says that "the two of us sat there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed."
Dee, however, doesn't see this place as her home. She has not been back in so long that Mama imagines a talk-show style reunion where she and Dee see each other once again. As a child, Dee was only made happy when Mama raised the money to send her away from home to go to school. When Dee first arrives, even before she kisses her mother and sister, she pulls out her camera to take pictures of them, with the house, with the house and the cow, etc. She seems to see their home as more of a tourist spot -- taking pictures, claiming souvenirs to take home with her (the butter churn top, the dasher, etc.). This is the way Dee sees the world, as full of things that are hers for the taking; no one ever really says "no" to her.
Describe the relationship between Mama and Maggie in "Everyday Use".
“I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me…”
Mama, the narrator of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” sees her daughter Maggie in a different light for the first time. As head of the household, Mama or Mrs. Johnson believes that family legacy and heritage rise above everything else. She has worked hard to give the best she can to her two daughters. Uneducated but with common sense, Mama has dreamed of having a fairy tale relationship with her older and pretty daughter Dee.
Mama loves both of her daughters. However, when she describes Maggie, the youngest, Mama describes her in harsh terms. Maggie’s description includes shyness, limitations, uneducated, and unsophisticated. After being burned horribly in their home fire, Maggie suffers from her injuries. She is scarred and almost ugly to the outside world. Even the way she walks is reflected in Mama’s description of Maggie---she shuffles with her chin on her chest and her eyes on the ground.
Maggie has been protected by Mama. Representing the selfless, uncorrupted aspect of human nature, Maggie may marry a man who has courted her, but it is doubtful that this will change Maggie in any significant way. As she grew up, Maggie paid attention to the family treasures. She remembers Grandma Dee and the making of the quilts. These things are important to her as much as to her mother. Mama knows that Maggie will be responsible for watching over the family heritage.
When Dee tries to take the quilts from Mama and Maggie, Maggie expresses emotions for the first time. She drops dishes and slams doors indicating that she does not believe that Dee has any right to these quilts made by loving hands. Dee indicts Maggie by saying that she will use the quilts every day and ruin them. Finally, Mama stands up to Dee and tells her that the quilts belong to Maggie.
Maggie offers to give the quilts to Dee.
“She can have them, Mama,” she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved her her. “I can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts.”
Mama sees for the first time that Maggie wants to please Dee, but Dee does not care who she hurts. This stirs emotions in Mama that she had not felt toward Maggie before.
Maggie knows her family history and has the knowledge of the crafts her grandmother taught her mother. Like her mother, Maggie is a survivor who has not received the appreciation for the abilities that she does have. The stance that Mama takes against Dee pleases Maggie and for the first time her smile is described as “a real smile, not scared.” She feels triumphant probably for the first time in her life.
Mama and Maggie withstand Dee’s raid on the family legacy and their integrity. Mama draws Maggie in for the first time and sees her for the valuable human being that she is. They will sit in the front lawn together relaxed and proud. No longer do they need to feel intimidated by Dee.
Describe Dee and Maggie in "Everyday Use."
In Walker's "Everyday Use," Dee, by the time she visits Maggie and her mother, is an urban black woman and represents blacks who moved to cultural centers and became well-educated and articulate.
Maggie is rural, and represents traditional, rural black culture. Maggie's mother is similar to Maggie.
The story reveals these two cultures in conflict, and at the center of the conflict is the different ways the two sisters view their backgrounds and upbringings. To Dee, the home furnishings she wants to take with her are quaint, old-fashioned, and would make nice decorative items. She wants to display them as works of art.
Maggie, as well as the mother, in contrast, want to use the items as they were meant to be used--for everyday use.
Of course, the mother comes down on the side of everyday use when Dee tries to take quilts intended for Maggie, and the story seems to, too. Rural, traditional black culture has a dignity of its own.
What is being said about the mother-daughter relationship in "Everyday Use"?
Sometimes, children feel misunderstood by their parents, even thinking that their parents are oblivious to the children's desires and feelings; most children, while they are still young, fail to realize that their parents are as, if not more, concerned with their children's desires and feelings than their very own. This story shows that Mrs. Johnson, the mother of two very different daughters—Maggie and Dee—considers her daughters' feelings quite deeply, though she at first seems to consider Dee's more than she does Maggie's. She knows what Dee wanted as a child, and she worked to get it for her. She knows that Dee wanted to go to school, and so she and their church raised the money. She is even willing to call Dee by another name, as Dee is rejecting the family name given to her by her mother, despite the fact that so many other women in the family have had the same name.
Mrs. Johnson is painfully aware of Dee's embarrassment about her family and where they live, and yet she continues to try to understand and love her daughter. We see that she is just as, if not more, preoccupied with her daughters' feelings—including Maggie's, by the story's end—than her own, and that even when she does things that embarrass Dee, she is only ever trying to help or to live her life the best way she knows how. Such a story helps us to sympathize with the plight of the parent rather than the child, showing us that confusion, a desire to please, and a wish for understanding are not the domains of daughters alone but of mothers as well. These relationships are tricky for both parties to navigate, not just one or the other.
One point that Walker makes through the short story "Everyday Use" is that the mother-daughter relationship is complex and mothers must make difficult decisions that will further their daughters's growth as women.
Mama realizes that Dee is gifted in ways that Maggie is not. Dee spends her young years reading to Mama and Maggie "without pity." She traps them "ignorant underneath her voice" as she seems to reign intellectually superior over them. Dee understands social graces and social climbing and always wants "nice things." She returns home with a man who shares her passion for cultural heritage and fairly flaunts her newfound pride to her family whom she is otherwise ashamed of (noting that she could never bring her friends to Mama's house).
Mama also sees the gifts in Maggie. Maggie is loyal and faithful, appreciating more fully her entire ancestry—not just the iconic images from her long-ago past. At the story's conclusion, Mama finds an easy comfort with Maggie that is not seen in her relationship with Dee.
Parenting these two daughters, even as young adults, takes different skill sets. While Dee needs to learn boundaries and a respect for her sister's differences, Maggie needs to learn courage and to find her own voice.
Therefore, Mama must make different parenting choices because the nature of the relationship with each of her daughters is unique. Neither relationship is easy, yet Mama has the wisdom to understand that the choice she must make serves a purpose for each of her daughters.
The main concern of Walker's "Everyday Use" is the understanding that the three women of the family have about their traditions and culture. For the narrator this understanding involves matriarchal ancestry. Dee, for instance, is named after her sister and her sister (Auntie Dee) was named after their mother (Big Dee). Likewise, the quilts, a metaphor of the women of each generation, are also symbolic of the strength found in connecting with one's roots that is sometimes in conflict with progress.
When Dee went to college, the mother offered her a quilt, but she refused to take such an old thing. Now, absorbed in her new Nationalist Movement, Dee/Wangero desires the quilts simply for their aesthetic merit, not because of any relational ties. The mother gives the quilts to Maggie, who has been taught to quilt and who appreciates the history of the squares from her Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform and pieces of dresses belonging to Grandma--stitching that was all done by hand.
When Dee says, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!...She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use," Mama makes the decision to drop them into Maggie's lap in an act of love, saying "I reckon she would....I hope she will!" For, that is exactly for what the quilts are meant: an "everyday use" reminder of an ancestry of motherly love.
What is the relationship between the narrator and Dee in "Everyday Use"?
Mama Johnson and her oldest daughter, Dee, have a complex, strained relationship in the short story. Mama is a down-to-earth, humble woman who is not ashamed of her working-class lifestyle. She accepts the fact that she is uneducated, overweight, and unrefined. As Mama waits for Dee to return home, she imagines reuniting with her daughter on a television show in an imaginary ideal scenario. In Mama’s daydream, she reveals that Dee does not approve of her by saying,
I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake.
Dee Johnson is the complete opposite of her mother. She is attractive, refined, and well-educated. Dee is also charismatic is extroverted, and she subscribes to different beliefs regarding her family's heritage. Unlike her mother, Dee chooses to embrace her African heritage by changing her name and using family heirlooms as display items. It is also revealed that Dee views her mother and sister with contempt because of their backward lifestyle. Dee feels ashamed of her mother's "ignorance" and living situation. Despite Dee's superiority complex, Mama stands up for her timid daughter, Maggie, by refusing to allow Dee to take their hand-stitched family quilts. Overall, Mama and Dee have a relatively contentious relationship which stems from their different personalities, lifestyles, and beliefs regarding heritage, culture, and family.
In "Everyday Use," the narrator, Mama, and Dee have a contentious relationship. Dee has never liked the lifestyle that her family lives, and she thinks that her mother does not want to make anything more of herself. After moving away, Dee tells her mother that she will manage to come visit her and Maggie no matter where they choose to live, implying that the Johnsons have chosen a lower-class lifestyle. Mama, on the other hand, is humble and does not seem troubled by her lifestyle. She describes their house in plain language, and although the house is small and relatively unattractive, it does not seem that Mama is bothered or ashamed by it. Mama says that Dee has always wanted "nice things," and Mama just does not value such material items. The two cannot agree on their sense of values, which creates tension between them.
How do Dee's and Maggie's views on heritage differ in "Everyday Use"?
It is difficult to imagine sisters with more different views than Maggie and Dee, isn't it? What does the story tell us about Dee? She left, she changed her name, and she changed her hair. All of these changes were about starting anew. She tells her mother that "Dee" is dead. What does she want to do with some of the old objects around her mother's house, the churn top and the quilts, for example? She want to use them in some "artistic" way, as decorations. But are these objects meant to be decorations? Or are they meant to be used? Dee tells her mother that Maggie is so foolish, she would want to use the quilts for "everyday use." (That is, of course, how the story gets its name.) What does that tell us about Maggie, who has not left, who lives with her mother, using objects for the purpose for which they were made? What is Maggie's perspective about these objects, which are certainly her heritage, too. Who view heritage as something to hang on the wall, and who view heritage as a way of life? Do you think either sister is wrong, or is there support for both points of view?
Good luck to you in your response to this question.
How do the main characters in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" differ, and what separates Dee from her sister?
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" touches upon the universal themes of search for independent identity and generational rebellion with both humor and poignancy. As the mother narrates, the reader perceives the two daughters, Dee and Maggie, from her point of view.
1. She describes her daughter Dee as having no "hesitation" in her nature; she would "always look anyone in the eye." Dee is lighter than Maggie "with nicer hair and a fuller figure." Unlike the bold Dee, Maggie is self-effacing, thin, and scared from burns.
She has been like this , chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle....
Dee always has wanted "nice things" and Maggie is satisfied with whatever she has. When Dee arrives she informs her family that she has changed her name and identity; she perceives her mother and sister as living in a servile past, while Maggie is content at home, using the "everyday things."
2. Dee and her sister are as different in personality as they are in appearance. Whereas Dee has gone away to school and become a part of a larger society and the Black Movement, Maggie has remained at home in a reclusive state. Dee scolds her sister,
"You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it."
Maggie is willing to let Dee take the quilts that their grandmother has made. However, when her mother drops them into Maggie's lap, she smiles "a real smile, not scared." She enjoys her quiet victory.
Angered that her mother gives Dee the quilts, Wangero/Dee accuses the mother of not understanding her heritage. But, it is truly Maggie who does understand the love and time that Big Dee placed into the quilt.
3. The greatest separation between Dee/Wangero and her sister Maggie is in their perceptions and ideologies. Content in the old way of life with family, Maggie has no desire for change; on the other hand, Wangero has become part of the new Black Movement of which Malcolm X was a part; for it was he who declared that African-Americans should rid themselves of their white names. Wangero now perceives the butterchurn and the quilts as mere artifacts of an enslaved, deafeated, and dead culture.
4. By renaming herself Wangero, Dee has detached herself from her past, and by virtue of discarding her past, she has lost connection to her family and real heritage, as well. Her boyfriend is obviously a Black Muslim as he refuses to eat pork because it is unclean, and he does not eat collards, which are often called "soul food." Ironically, by embracing this new identity, Wangero feels that she has touched her true heritage; however, Mama feels that their heritage is in the quilts made from the clothing and blankets of their ancestors.
5. The obvious external conflict is between the new Dee, Wangero, and her idea of heritage. For, she wants to take the butter churn and the quilts to put them on display as artifacts of a former society. The mother is offended by this attitude, reflecting Alice Walker's own sense of quilting as a motif. For, the act of quilting is the connecting of one's roots and past with the present. Thus, the quilts that Wangero wants represent the conflict of progress with tradition (an external conflict).
The mother undergoes an internal conflict as she is reluctant to give Dee the butter churn after she looks at the place where hands had worn the dasher made from a tree where Big Dee and Stash had lived (her parents).
When Wangero asks for the quilts, the mother hears something fall in the kitchen, the the door slams. These sounds come from Maggie [internal conflict] who miserably assumes that Dee will get her way and take the quilts that she cherishes. But the mother suggests that she take some newer ones [external conflict]. When Wangero says that she wants them because they are "priceless," the mother wonders, "What would you do with them?" Wangero replies that she would put them on display: "Hang them." Then Maggie says in defeat,
"She can have them, Mama...."I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts."
As she looks at Maggie with her scarred hands and frightened look, the mother describes,
...something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me....
Then, she the mother grabs Maggie, pulls her into the room, snatches the quilts from Wangero's hands and "dumps them into Maggie's lap," telling her daughter to take others. Angered, Wangero tells her mother, ironically, that she does not understand her heritage. After she departs, the mother and Maggie just "sit and enjoy."
6. With this ending, the reader must conclude that Alice Walker sees the purpose of heirlooms is usage, not display. Truly, Walker gives voice to women and the rural Black South and its contributions. In a critical overview, it is written,
As a writer with black feminist insight, Walker gives voice in this story ''to an entire maternal ancestry often silenced by the political rhetoric of the period."
Like Mama, Walker is not impressed with the African-nationalist viewpoint.
In "Everyday Use," what conflicts occur between Mama and Dee?
Interestingly, I think that the conflicts between Mama and Dee are very closely linked to the theme and the major symbol of this story. I think the theme of this story has to do with our heritage and our family history and how we respond to it. We can see this theme through the main symbol of the story and how it is used.
Clearly the major symbol of this great story is to be found in the quilts that Dee so desperately wants. Consider how they are presented in the story:
Out came Wangero with two quilts. They had been pieces by Grandma Dee, and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them. One was in the Lone Star pattern. The other was Walk Around the Mountain. In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War.
This description shows both how valuable they are to the narrator but also what a family history they include and show. It is clear that the quilts and who they belong to symbolise a far bigger issue regarding the characters of Dee and Maggie, giving the story its title. Note what Dee says when her mother declares she had promised them to Maggie:
"Maggie can't appreciate those quilts!" she said. She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."
The final decision to give Maggie the quilts is an act of love and of upbuilding of Maggie, for the narrator rejects Dee's rather pushy claim on the quilts and gives them to Maggie instead. Thus the quilts can be said to symbolise the heritage of the family, but also the love and human spirit of Ma for Maggie as she tries to build her daughter up and show her that she is affirmed and deeply cared for. Of course, it is Maggie who, unlike her sister, Dee, has not abandoned her family heritage, and thus will use the quilts in a way that is honouring to the memory of the family history that they represent.
Thus the major conflict is between Mama, who believes in her family heritage and holds on to it, allowing it to identify and define her, and Dee, who has rejected her family heritage in an attempt to embrace an African identity.
Why do Maggie and her mother act awkwardly towards Dee in "Everyday Use"?
Maggie and the mother react awkwardly towards Dee because of the inherent differences between their identities and culture. In addition, Maggie and the mother expected to see a modern woman because Dee went to a city college. Instead, Dee shows up in a long African dress and jangling earrings. Dee also changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo in reference to her African roots. All these changes came as a shock to both her mother and Maggie. Before she left for college, Dee was not happy with her family’s lifestyle or culture; upon her return, she seemed in touch with her origins. Dee asked for the butter churn her uncle made. She also asked for the handmade quilts pieced by her grandmother and assembled by her mother and her sister. The mother tells her the quilts were already promised to Maggie. Dee tries to take the quilts, but her mother takes them from her and offers her machine-stitched quilts instead.
Compare the mother's relationship with each daughter in "Everyday Use."
Mama and her relationship with her daughters Maggie and Dee are complex, to say the least.
Mama fantasizes about a reunion with Dee, the assertive, educated daughter who has left behind her humble upbringing. Mama explains how Maggie is both jealous of and in awe of her sister, but this attitude is the same with which Mama regards Dee. Mama describes Dee in both idealized (“always would look anyone in the eye”) and scornful terms (“burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know”). Dee always set herself apart from her mother and sister, and Mama recognizes this as simultaneously good and bad: while Dee is successful, she is also condescending.
On the other hand, Mama seems to pity Maggie more than truly love her. She describes Maggie’s walk as that of “a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car.” She also discusses at length Maggie’s burn scars, shyness, and envy of Dee. At the beginning of the story, Mama treats Maggie like a fact of her existence, someone she felt a need to take care of until she finally married—which Maggie is about to do. After Dee’s visit and her confrontation with Mama, Mama realizes that Maggie is actually a humble, kind person. Mama understands that Dee’s negative treatment of her family outweighs the glamorous vision she once represented in Mama’s eyes.
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