A & P and Everyday Use Analysis and Comparison Essay

Mama, the protagonist in Alice Walker's short story, Everyday Use is a woman with a solid foundation and tough roots. The qualities that society would find admirable within Mama are the same qualities that Dee, Mama's oldest daughter, would spurn, thinking them only the qualities of a down home, uneducated, country bumpkin. Dee, the story's main antagonist, is proof that children are not necessarily products of their environment.

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a short, yet powerful story about a simple, rural family that’s changed with the return of one of the daughters. Maggie and “Mama” continue to keep the tradition of a simple and hardworking life that seems to be passed down from generations, but we see that Dee has been a black sheep since a young age and holds resentment toward her family because of their lifestyle. Mama was raised into this lifestyle and has become satisfied and happy with it. With her man-ish skills she readily adopts the chores of the life she’s accepted, but like any parent, wants the best she possible can for her dear daughters. Maggie, like her mother, lacks many natural gifts like beauty or brains,

A daughter who uses her mother's gifts in contrast to a daughter who preserves them, is far more valuable just like in “Everyday use” by Alice Walker because heritage values can be preserved. From here on, Walker utilizes a prideful tone which later shifts into an authoritative tone by illustrating a proud mother who becomes defensive because of her modern daughter’s opposing views.

The short story “Everyday Use” was written by Alice Walker and published in 1973. The story is told in first-person by “Mama,” an African-American woman residing in Georgia. Mama lives in a small but comfortable house with her physically scarred younger daughter, Maggie. Mama is preparing for the visit back home of her eldest daughter, Dee. Dee is educated and driven; however, we come to learn that most of her accomplishments come at the cost of her mother and her sister Maggie. Mama’s relationship with Dee is strained, and this creates conflict later in the story. “Everyday Use” depicts the complications between a mother and daughter’s relationship. The story examines the feelings a mother has when she believes she is not needed anymore or respected. Mama’s feelings towards both daughters are illustrated through two of Mama’s character traits, her low-self-esteem and lack of worldliness. However, because Mama has such a strong character and understanding of her family, she undergoes a significant change in her life, which then makes her into a dynamic character.

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

Lengel says, “We want you decently dressed when you come in here” to the girls as to enforce “Our policy” (875) being the store. Sammy sees the embarrassment on the girls face and seems quite upset with Lengels authority. He acts on the chance to rebel against Lengel and decides to quit knowing the consequences. He believes he shouldn’t follow these strict rules that limit him and others. A step closer to self-liberation.

The setting of A&P describes an average grocery store and is woven with the eventful shopping trip of three girls. Sammy’s recount of events that unfold during the story shows details typically overlooked every day and expresses his feelings and how they shift from amusement of the girls, to defensive against Lengel. It is obvious Sammy knows the girls will be perceived as indecent by others, but he feels like he must come to their defense especially against Lengel. Unfortunately for Sammy, he was an unrecognized hero that sacrificed his job to do what he saw as right at the time. Understanding Sammy’s conflict between how society perceives and treats girls based on what is considered acceptable is tied in with the descriptions of the story’s setting. Sammy views the people in the store or society as mindless sheep, it is apparent he believes himself to be freethinking and progressive in comparison. The reality of facing the real world, alone with no one around or girls to cheer him on sets in at the end, almost defeated as his stomach falls, and he accepts the consequences of his

As a gorgeous female enters the store, Sammy’s intellect dissolves. His shallow feelings at the moment causes his immediate rebellion. His only positive feelings come from what actions he carried out. No one praises him for quitting his job to defend the poorly dressed female. Sammy thought that he was the real deal when he claimed that Lengel “didn’t have to embarrass them” in their argument.

Culture and heritage is something people often try to preserve. In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Maggie and Dee argue over how to keep their heritage alive. They have gone separate ways but now for a short period of time, they are back together. As you progress through the story one thing becomes clear. Dee and Maggie may be sisters but with few similarities, they have very different ways of doing things.

From cultures to opinions, from sizes to emotions, many families have similarities and differences. These characteristics make every family special. One special family is in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. While having many difficulties, this family still focuses on heritage, similar to my own family that has its own difficulties. Comparing my family to the family in “Everyday Use” , we have similarities and differences regarding unity, helpfulness, and humility.

In Alice Walker's story "Everyday Use" Mama is the storyteller. She talks about her two little girls Maggie and Dee. Through the eyes of the two daughters, Dee and Maggie, who have experienced their lives in a real different way, the reader can pick which character to project himself most with by judging what has a real meaning in one's life. All through the story three topics reliably appear. These subjects demonstrate that the family is isolated by disgrace, pride, and knowledge.

A young man making a transition through adolescence and making more adult independent decisions. Sammy works in the A&P grocery near the beach where he refers to the customers as sheep and just seems bored with the day to day. As three girls enter the store to buy fancy Herring snacks in swimming suits, he recognizes that Queenie comes from a higher socioeconomic class than he does. He also describes his co-worker Stokesie a 22- year old man with wife and two children who wants to become the next manager. I believe that Sammy is afraid of following the same life. Sammy begins to symbolize the swimming suits as freedom and an exciting escape from the boring everyday world in which he finds himself. Lengel the store manager approaches the girls about wearing swimsuits and embarrasses them in the store, which rubs Sammy the wrong way. Sammy rebels and states “I quit” and pulls the apron off. He wants to impress the girls but they had continued out and left the store. “Looking back in the big windows, over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he’d had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” this statement seems as though Sammy realizes the adult choice he just made and the consequences

“Everyday Use” is a timeless short story told my Alice Walker. There are three main characters that are apparent throughout the story; these characters are Mama, Maggie, and Dee. Dee is the character that Walker uses to portray the real world at the time that the story was set. Right from the start, the audience gets the sense of the selfish and condescending nature that Dee holds. The second paragraph sets the perfect upfront picture of Dee by saying “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.” (1) Dee represents the role that race plays in shaping identity through the idea of black pride, the physical description, and through the selfish attitude that Dee has.

Sammy describes Leagel as a dreary person who is the store manager and teaches in a Sunday school. Therefore, being a teacher explains why Leagel is strict on policy and readers can infer that he lives with conformity, which he never breaks rules. Stokesie is Sammy’s friend who is married, has two children, and wants to become a manager one day in A&P. Therefore, when he sees Sammy resigns his job, he is not likely to follow Sammy’s action because he needs to support his family. This shows Stokesie is more mature than Sammy because he understands what responsibilities he has. Apart from describing the male employees, Sammy thinks the young female customers who wear bathing suits know what they want and they enjoy greater freedom than other customers, which Sammy describes them as a “few houseslaves in pin curlers”. From Sammy’s point of view, he suggests the houseslaves customers are most likely housewives because they go to A&P with curlers and that means they are busy taking care of their families and do not have time to focus on their appearances. Therefore, Sammy’s depiction of the house-slaves in pin curlers suggests they do not have control of their

In “Everyday Use” there is a dilemma, taking place between a mother and her two daughters. As the story progresses we tend to see how the mother acknowledges the extreme differences between her daughter’s character traits and overall personalities. Even with understanding that one daughter is completely different from the other, mama, strategically is able to display love and compassion for both. However, by the end of the story, mama makes a drastic decision to favor one, due to the overly aggressive demands and disrespects from one daughter to another, regarding the most valuable items in mama’s home. As a result, mama stood firm in her decision, realizing that Dee had gone through a mindset change ever since she left the house and rudely imposing her new believes on the family.