Mama notes how nice and wavy the ground looks, intentionally to impress Dee. Reflecting her own thoughts as Maggie’s, she tells how Maggie will be nervous until her sister leaves. Mama says, “she will stand hopelessly in the corners and shamed…She thinks her sister has always held life in the palm of one hand, that no is a word the world would never say to her.” (Walker). Leaving the reader to not know how Maggie really feels about Dee at all. Mama daydreams of meeting on a T.V.
She is the only one in the family who has been educated and doesn’t like to remember old feelings that only bring frustration and sadness. By wanting to change her name Dee shoes us that she is not proud of her culture, descendants and family. 4. Dee objects to Maggie having the quilts because “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use”.
Another instance is when she asks her mother for the quilts her grandmother had made, her mother said they were for Maggie; Dee's reply was, “Maggie wouldn't appreciate the quilts” and Maggie says, “Dee can have them” (Walker 2441). Furthermore, all of the things Dee ask for she wants to use them for decoration and not for everyday use. Dee also was not educated about her heritage. For instance, her mother called her “Dee” and in return she replied saying her new name was Wangero, followed by the statement, “Dee is dead and I can no longer bear the name of the people that oppress me” (Walker 2440). I believe there was no time during the story that she was oppressed or even mentioned
She had hated the house that much.” This shows just how much Dee cared about her lifestyle and the location of the house. Resulting from her disrespect, she pushes her mother around. When Dee tries to take the quilts, Mama tells Dee that she had promised Maggie she could have them one day. Dee disregards her mother’s comment and begins to walk out the door. Mama realizes she must stand up to Dee and tell her that she cannot take the quilts because they are Maggie’s.
In the short story "Everyday Use", Alice Walker emphasizes the aspect of individuality. The story concentrates on the lives of two sisters, Maggie and Dee, growing up together under the same conditions clearly created two very distinct individuals. Maggie is almost the complete opposite of her sister Dee. Maggie does not agree with her sister on many aspects, but she does look up to her. Maggie starts off in the story as having very low self-esteem, Walker describes her as, “Walking with chin on her chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the house to the ground.” This has caused her to feel unattractive and not as confident compared to her sister.
She held the quilts securely in her arm, stroking them” (748) Dee (Wangero) can feel the love of her Grandmother through these quilts. Mama has already promised them to Maggie now, knowing that Dee had no use for them before she went away to college. Now she would like to hang them up and show off her heritage. Walker uses the quilts to also show a little personality in Mama as she is angered by the fact that Dee thinks all Maggie would do with the quilts is use them every day and not realize the history and heritage behind them. Even though Maggie is portrayed as a frail, quiet, shy child, she reveals her thoughts when Dee is told no by Mama for the quilts.
Once her and her husband arrived at mother’s house, Maggie and Dee started arguing about who take the quilt that been in the family for a very long time. Dee thinks that she should get it because the is older and more”responsible”.They kept going on and on about it for a while.Finally mother jumps into the conversation and solves it,by telling Dee “NO” and Maggie that she keeps the quilt. Once Dee and Maggie are done fighting about the quilt, Maggie tell Dee to have the quilt instead. Dee gets mad at Maggie because maggie gave up the quilt to easy. She feels that she dont have any self respect for herself.
She grew up very close to her father, but didn’t have too much of a relationship with her mother. Her mother favored Maudie more than Peyton. As stated by Hadaller “Helen ostensibly devotes herself to Maudie, but at the expense of her marriage and in so doing she takes on a martyr complex, becoming self-righteously indignant that she is not recognized in her role as a devoted and caring mother.”(Hadaller29) Helen often acted jealous of her. “Helen Loftis has been seen by various critics as a woman filled with “insane jealousy” that leads to her acts of “great cruelty” toward her family and as a mother who wears a “hypocritical mask” of love and understanding when in reality she feels naught but jealousy and hostility.” (Hadaller35) The parents’ preferences put a strain on Peyton. It was hard for her to receive so much attention from her father, but have her mother abandon her emotionally.
Mama then goes on to describe how nervous Maggie will be until her sister leaves, “standing hopelessly in corners”, “eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe.” She then goes onto reminisce about a dream she had in which she and her daughter Dee, were reunited on a talk show. During this Mama, reveals how she knows her physical appearance is less than desirable but she makes no apologies for being a, “big-boned woman with rough, man working hands.” The two daughters are like night and day when compared to one another. When the reader first meets Maggie, she is portrayed as shy, awkward and self-conscious do to the scars she received when
The mother doesn’t understand the daughter’s life, and this failure to understand leads to her to distrust her daughter. Dee sees her new persona as liberating, whereas the mother sees it as a rejection of her family and her origins. Dee indeed rejects her family by changing her name to “Wangero”, “she’s dead”, she responded when asked “what happen to Dee” (28). Later, Dee tried to get stuff from the house like the bench, the butter chunk, just as decorative objects but her mother sees those “objects” as a symbol, as a living proof of her family, her tradition. The mother wants her daughter to see those precious objects that way too.