Point of View in Everyday Use by Alice Walker Essay

“Everyday Use” is a story about family and heritage. Through various arguments the authors, Susan Farrell and Nancy Tuten, share their thoughts and ideas on Walkers meaning of the story. Although they both agree that the story has to do with heritage, Nancy Tuten’s ideas and Susan Farrell’s differ.

Maggie and Dee are extremely different people, but they share some qualities like all sisters do. One similar trait is they are both from the same family and experienced some similar events in childhood. Both children had to experience the fire that burnt down their old house (49). Another example of their similarities is that they are both in a relationship with a man. Dee is with the person that may or may not be her husband Hakim-a-Barber and Maggie has the man she is courting, John Thomas. They both are going through the ups and downs of a relationship. Lastly, they both want the quilts that Mama has. Dee wants to take them back to

This short story "Everyday use" speaks about the life of two young ladies and their mother. They are a poor family that lived in old-fashioned life but Dee the bigger sister don'y like that life.

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.

When we are first introduced to Dee, we learn that she no longer wants to be called by her given name but instead she would want to be called ‘Wangero’. Dee comments, “I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppressed me” (Walker 62). Although Dee may have only known that she was named after Grandma Dee, Mama could have “carried back beyond the Civil War” (Walker 62) the name of her daughter. This offended Mama because it was the beginning of how Dee began to reject her heritage. In addition, Mama also realizes how Maggie acts around Dee because of the way she treats her. When Maggie gives into Dee’s wanting of the blankets, Mama sees that Maggie is hurting and Dee couldnt care less. Mama comments that Maggie answered Dee “like somebody used to never winning anything or having anything reserved for her” (Walker 65). These conflicts lead mama to take a stand against her daughter as well as drawing her closer to Maggie. This showed Dee that she could not just barge into the house and take things she did not even truly know the meaning of. Therefore the reader understands that Dee’s actions led Mama to act differently with both of her children, all for the sake of honoring her heritage and

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.

Maggie is the younger sister of the two. Parallel to Mama, Maggie also suffer from insecurities. Dee is lighter than Maggie with nicer hair and a fuller figure. Maggie was burned in the house fire and she shuffles when she walks. She is described as being shy, unable to make eye contact, and does not like to be seen when other people are around. The story tells how “she stand hopelessly in the corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arm and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe” (p.315). Maggie’s thought of her sister is that she has always held life in the palm of one hand, that’s “no” is a word the world never learned to

Second, there were some cultural differences, Maggie and Mama lived in a house located in a pasture with animals, and you could tell through Mama's description of Dee that she was more modernized probably a city Girl. When Dee/Wangero came to visit she wore a bright dress with loud colors, bangles and gold earrings. Mama said Dee's dress had so many yellows and oranges it was enough to throw back the sun (109). Maggie wore a pink skirt and red blouse that enveloped her body (107). Dee was an educated woman having graduated from High School. Mama on the other hand never made it past the second grade because the school she attended was closed down in 1927. Mama said that, "Colored asked fewer questions than they do now" referring to why the school closed (109). Circumstances such as age, education, and living arrangements dictated their

Point of view is the narrator’s position in the story being told. Point of view changes the story drastically, since you are hearing different stories and opinions by different characters in a story. Even if the plot is the same, the point of view will change the entire story. Point of view can also create tension between different characters. For example, if you are hearing the thoughts of one character in the story, and the actions of another character who is aware of these rude thoughts, the reader knows that the two characters tension between each other will eventually rise up to a certain point that a problem will occur. Point of view creates a lot of tension in the two books, Confetti Girl and Tortilla Sun, between the narrator and their parent. Both books

A point of view is a position in which the story is being told, but did you know that there is two point of views in The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little pigs? The two stories have views changed by how the author tells them. In the story of the pigs it’s in third person, but in the wolf’s view he just wants sugar and see’s them as a snack so it’s first person. The story of “The Three Little Pigs” and “The True story of the Three Little pigs” have different point of views that help the readers understanding of the wolf.

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

Mama, the narrator, waits with her youngest, feeble daughter Maggie, to reunite with her eldest Dee. When they meet, Mama finds that Dee has changed, the things she used to arrogantly shrug off are now things that she identifies as being important to her heritage. Mama realizes that the quilts that Dee wants hold a different meaning to Dee than it does to Mama and Maggie, so she sends Dee away, and gives the quilts to Maggie.

In the beginning of the story, Mama felt criticized by her daughter Dee, who came back to visit her mom after experiencing a different life beyond her poverty stricken home. For example, when describing herself, Mama is proud of her life as a “big boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (70). She takes pride in the painstaking life that she has as a single mother who has supported and fed both her daughters in the absence of a working man in a time period in which men’s role as the provider and head of the household was prominent. Mama’s self pride is further seen as she brags that she can “clean a hog as merciless as a man” (70). Despite Mama’s positive image of herself, she lets Dee’s image of her mom taint her self image. Mama views herself through the eyes of her daughter as she describes

Maggie, the youngest daughter, saw herself as a shy, introverted youthful woman. She had scars mentally and physically from when their house had burned down some years before, and she is very ashamed of them. Once Dee and her

1. Point of view – the view or perspective of how the story is narrated (i.e first person)