Everyday Use...Alice Walker
...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.
Maggie is shamed from her scares of being burnt by their previous house. As her mother describes, "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" (87). Besides her scars, she just doesn't possess the same outgoing personality and full figure that Dee has. All these aspects make her feel inferior to Dee. She doesn't feel comfortable when Hakim-a-barber tries to shake her hand. On the other hand Dee is ashamed of her family and heritage. One of the main things that Dee does to distance herself from her family, and tarnish part of her family's tradition is the changing of her name Dee Johnson, to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, because she feels that it comes from "the people that oppressed me" (Walker 88). This shows that Dee is ashamed of her family heritage and she is trying to block out the past and the family in which she was raised. This act comes to Mama as a shock because of the thought that was placed into the choosing of that name. Mama explains to Dee that she can probably trace the passing of that name to before the Civil War. Dee also sent a letter to Mama once and made the comment that she would never bring her friends when she came to visit. In this, Dee is worried about what her friends would think because she is ashamed of the shack in which Mama and Maggie lives. Mama is also ashamed of their home saying "I have deliberately turned my back on the house." (Walker 87) She describes...
View Full Essay
