Analysis Of Alice Walker's Everyday Use

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While reading Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” one can picture and see the simple lives that Maggie and Mama live in and how it is oh so shaken up by the arrival of Maggie’s older sister Dee. Mama and Maggie seem to think that Dee as she is some type of higher person than they are even though they are kin. Since she has gone away from college, Dee seems as though she has distanced herself from the life that she had when she was living with Maggie and Mama never to look back. The two seem as though they are scared for her to come back, as they believe she will hate everything about the living situation and what their life is still about. Mama gives a sort of negative insight into Dee’s character, but in her article, “Fight vs. Flight: A Re-evaluation
It seems as though before the reader even gets a chance to meet Dee and is able to evaluate her character as a hold, Mama’s negative thoughts about her truly shape the reader’s mind that she is some bad person who does not care about anything dealing with her past, but if you take a look at Dee by herself one can see that is not true. There is a reason that she wanted to go back to her roots and see her family as well as experience what it was like to be in that situation again. Sure it may be weird that she wanted to take pictures and ultimately take the quilt that was going to be used by Mama and Dee, but it all to remind her where she comes from and how she can better herself and never have to worry about going back to that when she is
Whether it be something as simple as not holding things against someone or thinking of them in a negative way, to not forgetting your heritage and what you have been through, there is always something to learn and keep a hold of. Life lessons can come from many things, and Alice Walker did exemplify a couple in her wonderful story about Mama, Dee, and Maggie. Stories such as “Everyday Use” may be common, but this one is truly one of a kind and will be one that sticks around for a long time. And the lessons learned will resonate with people for maybe even for

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