Compare And Contrast Dee And Everyday Use

Dee does not truly value the heritage, and her interest in the quilts seem to reflect a cultural trend. This cultural trend becomes evident when the mother says, “I had offered Dee a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style”(Walker 96). We learned early in the story that Dee acquired a style at a young age, and she allowed the world around her to alter and manipulate that style.

Alice Walker used her writing to convey a message to African Americans. She used her character to show that although one might try to remove himself or herself from a race they will always be connected to it. The situation Dee is going through is generational issue for African Americans. They are always on a constant search to find their place in this world. Walker exemplifies this in

Dee is a controlling person who always wanted everything to herself only and don't want anybody to take something more than her. And that appeared when mama said that the quilts which were handmade by their grandma Dee, that she would give it to Maggie, Dee was very angry for that and she wanted to take the quilts herself not because she wanted, just because she don't like anybody to take something more than her and wants everything for herself only. Dee was well educated and didn't liked her mother's and sister's way of living so she traveled and when

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" Mama is the narrator. She speaks of her family of two daughters Maggie and Dee. Through the eyes of two daughters, Dee and Maggie, who have chosen to live their lives in very different manners, the reader can choose which character to identify most with by judging what is really important in one’s life. Throughout the story three themes consistently show. These themes show that the family is separated by shame, knowledge, and pride.

The character of Mama in the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker endures through intense times and takes advantage of what she has. She is a lady that tells things how they are, only plain truth. She can be entertaining now and again and intense at others. She is self-portrayed as “a large, huge boned, women with rough, man-working

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a short story about the family relationship between a mother and her spoiled daughter. The mother, who is affectionately called “Mama” throughout the story, lives with her younger daughter, Maggie. The older child is Dee, who has not lived at home since she was sent to Augusta to school. She is preoccupied with advancing her social status and acquiring nice things. “Dee wanted nice things. A yellow Organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit…” (Walker,492). The story revolves around Dee’s visit to see Mama and Maggie, an event which obviously does not happen often. Dee only seems to visit the family in order to claim items that Mama has not yet given to her children. As usual, Mama allows Dee to come inside the home and take whatever she wants. Yet, the relationship between Mama and Dee is a complicated one. Others may say that their relationship is strained because Dee burned their first house down. However, there is no direct proof that Dee is responsible for the fire. Their relationship is contentious and uneasy because Dee is very selfish, she wants to advance her life without considering others, mainly Maggie, and she resents that Mama is satisfied with a simple life.

Mama had been so excited for Dee’s visit because she hadn’t seen Dee in years, “You’ve no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has “made it” is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage,” Mama had dreamed of this day to come because she knew she had done something good for her child, something to be proud of. But upon Dee’s arrival both Mama and Maggie had noticed her change as if she was better then them and understood more of African culture because she had an education, “ I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.” Dee had converted not only her name but her clothes and jewelry to make a statement of what “real” heritage is. This quilts led to a controversy between the meanings of their heritage. Ironically for Dee, Mama had offered her the quilts a long time ago but was too interested in appearance rather than the legacy left behind, “ I had offered Dee a quilt when she went away for college. Then she had told they were old- fashioned, out of style.” Then when she comes back, she wants to hang them as décor and doesn’t want Maggie to have them because she’ll ruin them, ““Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” she said. “ She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.”

Dee, from Walker’s “Everyday Use,” is Mama’s older daughter who not only has a judgmental, insensitive attitude towards Mama and her younger sister Maggie, but also believes she appreciates her family heritage more than Mama does, when in fact, Dee is the one who is “uneducated” and lacks an understanding about what her heritage truly is.

The story 'Everyday Use', written by Alice Walker, is a story of heritage, pride, and learning what kind of person you really are. In the exposition, the story opens with background information about Dee and Maggie's life, which is being told by Mama. The reader learns that Dee was the type of child that had received everything that she wanted, while Maggie was the complete opposite. The crisis, which occurs later in the story, happens when Dee all of a sudden comes home a different person than she was when she left. During the Climax, Mama realizes that she has often neglected her other child, Maggie, by always giving Dee what she wants. Therefore, in the resolution, Mama defends Maggie by telling Dee that she cannot have the

Although the story "Everyday Use" is narrated from Mama's point of view, Alice Walker reveals Dee, Mama's eldest daughter, to be the central character. Dee remains essentially unchanged throughout the story. Even though Dee achieves her aim by overcoming complications such as poverty and racial discrimination, she is not admirable for her achievements and courage. Walker describes her to be selfish and self-centered, a woman who remains unchanged from her childhood to the current position after several years. The disregard for her sister's pain, ingratitude for the money raised for her education, and the desire for quilts indicates her static behavior.

From all of the vivid descriptions used to describe Dee and Maggie, it is obvious that Maggie and Mama's perspective of heritage is more respectable than that of Dee's, because of the way that Dee acts as though she is ashamed of it. It is ironic that Dee wants the family quilts so badly, when in many ways she tries to disown her family in attempts to lose her heritage. Washington argues that Dee is a character who "is awakened to life by a powerful political force... and puts up a consequent effort to reintegrate themselves into their culture to rediscover its value"; which explains her actions when she comes back for her family items only when it seems fashionable to display them (23). Maggie and Mama both know that a true appreciation of one's heritage comes from learning their family history and about personal experiences. Dee fails

In the short story Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, the short story is narrated by a black woman in the South who is faced with the decision to give away two quilts to one of her two daughters. Dee, her oldest daughter who is visiting from college, perceives the quilts as popular fashion and believes they should undoubtedly be given to her. Maggie, her youngest daughter, who still lives at home and understands the family heritage, has been promised the quilts. Dee is insistent to possess these heirlooms of family heritage, while Maggie is forbearing in allowing Mama to make her own decision as to who should receive the quilts. Dee shows a lack of appreciation, disrespect, and a distancing behavior towards her mother and sister. Mama

The strongest example of Dee's confusion and of Walker's belief that a family's heritage should be alive and not frozen in time is at the end of the story. Dee finds the two quilts that had been pieced together by many generations of her family, and she wants to keep them. Her mother says, "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

Dee is the afro-centric, ego- centric and eccentric pseudo-intellect. She values her culture in a more materialistic aspect. She respects the artifacts of her history rather than the usefulness. Dee’s earthly-mindedness sets the stage for conflict throughout the entire story, from her arrival until the central conflict when there is a battle amongst the other two main characters Mama and Maggie, about who is truly entitled to the hand-stitched quilts. The quilts were works of art that have been passed down throughout

Now all of a sudden she has Black Muslim family and wants to impress them so she returns to grab things that are part of her family’s heritage. That are only interested in what they stand for and not for whom they stand for.  Then as soon as she pays a visit to her home, she picks up and walks out again.  It is obvious, to her heritage is for show not for living. The situational irony is present as well. Selfish Dee expects to be able to just walk into Mama’s house and take what she wants. Instead, Mama finally realizes that Maggie deserves the quilts because she understands her heritage. Mama actually understands what Dee is becoming and decides to give the quilts to Maggie.