Alice Walker Dee Essay

Submitted By Ginnam
Words: 645
Pages: 3
Open Document
Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” gives us an intuitive look at the exemplification of the harmonization, clashes, and struggles surrounding the African-American culture as well as how far some go to reject theirs. Walker was born the child of sharecroppers in rural Georgia.
The focus here pertains to an encounter between family members and the role Dee plays in the situation. Dee brings her male companion with her when she returns to visit her mom and sister. Dee’s male mate, for example, has accepted a Muslim name and declines to eat pork and collard greens, thus negating to take part in the traditional African-American culture. Because Dee in now educated there are two different analyses of, or approaches to their culture. Walker engagements characterizes and symbols highlight the change between these versions and finally uphold one of them, displaying that culture and heritage are parts of day to day life. This story, made up of a single mom and her two daughters. Maggie the youngest daughter, was burned badly when their house burned down. She tread softly through life ever since and clung to Mama for safekeeping.
Walker states that Maggie’s big sister, “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure …Impressed with her (Dee) they (her friends) worshiped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye…Her feet were always neat-looking, as if God himself had shaped them with a certain style” (Walker 170,171,172). At age sixteen Dee knew that she wanted a particular style and knew she wanted and would have more than the accepted lifestyle of her mom and sister, as if she strives to be better than them. Her beauty when compared to Mama and Maggie for those two good looks was non-existent.
Dee, was truly Maggie’s opposite. She was also characterized as being educated. “I use to think she (Dee) hated Maggie, too. But that was before we raised the money, the church and me (Mama) to send her (Dee) to Augusta to school” (Walker 171). Dee’s education was exceptionally important in building her character, nonetheless it separated her from her family. People made sacrifices for her to get educated and to have the nice things in life; she took it as an opportunity to shun them.
A lesson learned by Dee early in life was acting sophisticated was not merely enough. When she dated Jimmy she gave all her attention to him and had time for no other. As a teen she fell head over heels for him; who then left
Show More

Related Documents: Alice Walker Dee Essay

Essay about Understanding The Differences Of Dee And Maggie In Alice Walkers

Understanding the Differences of Dee and Maggie in Alice Walkers “Everyday Use” The comparison of characters is something an author allows us to do while reading a story. They do so by, describing to us the characters appearance, personality, lifestyle, and any other unique qualities that might help illustrate someone. In the story Alice Walkers “Everyday Use”, it is written from a mother’s point of view as she talks about her two daughters, Maggie and Dee, and how different they are. They are both…

Words 955 - Pages 4

Comparing Dee And Maggie In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, most characters have strikingly dissimilar personalities, even if they share the same backgrounds. A good example of this is the difference between Dee and Maggie, the two daughters. In terms of confidence, stubbornness, and willingness to stick by family, both girls seem to have no relation to each other. This ultimately drives a wedge in between them and their mother based on lack of understanding. From the beginning of the story, Maggie is introduced…

Words 561 - Pages 3

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Essay

the family. In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker there is just that. The daughter Dee has a different view then her mom and sister. In the short story “Everyday Use” Alice Walker uses characterization, conflict, and symbolism to convey people that every family has strife. To begin with, Alice walker uses characterization to give each individual a different view of the family. In the short story characterization is mostly uses on Dee and Dees mother. Dees mother is more into the ways…

Words 763 - Pages 4

Everyday Use Characterization

importance of the valuable date, rather than celebrating for its music and liquor. Such as Dee wanting to redo her heritage and focus on the cultural heirlooms and fashionable, rather than on what really matters about it. In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” Dee deeply fails to know her true identity, rejecting her family name, culture style and heritage. When Dee comes home to visit her family she rejects the name Dee and changes her name to Wangero ,because she understand that the name has no historical…

Words 705 - Pages 3

Everyday Use Comparison Essay

In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Mamma the narrator, focuses on the two completely different lives of her daughters Dee and Maggie. Even though Dee and Maggie grew up together under the same restrictions, they both possess different outlooks on life. Alice Walker wrote the short story “Everyday Use” to point out the distinct aspects of individuality amongst Dee and Maggie. Being raised together caused Dee and Maggie to portray characteristic similarities and differences whether…

Words 850 - Pages 4

Alice Walker Heritage

Everyday Use by Alice Walker is set in the late 1960 and early 1970s, a time when many African Americans were fighting to control of their social, cultural, and political identity in American society. Alice Walker was a novelist, short story writer, activist, and feminist. Walker tried to portray all this event that was occurring in that moment in the personality of Dee. Dee is portrayed as a hypocrite to his heritage by not understand what their true heritage is. The author shows that Dee does not really…

Words 795 - Pages 4

Quilts Made of Heritage Essay

Made Of Heritage The short story “Everyday Use for your grandmama,” by Alice Walker, is about a black mother and her two daughters who are of African American descent. The two sisters are very different with one being uneducated and clinging to her heritage, while the other seeking a better life with getting and an education and leaving it far behind. This leads to the theme of the story, which is the meaning of heritage. Walker uses setting, symbolism, and diction to reinforce the theme that heritage…

Words 629 - Pages 3

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Definition Of Heritage

“Everyday Use”: What is the True Definition of Heritage? In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Mama recounts a visit from Dee—her eldest daughter. Throughout the visit, it is clear that Dee and Mama have vastly different ideas on how one should live. Based on Walker’s description, Mama and Maggie—her youngest daughter—are conservative people and live rather uneventful lives. In contrast, Dee is constantly looking for opportunities to change how she lives. For example, she chose to go to college and…

Words 413 - Pages 2

Everyday Use Analysis Essay

Ellen Johnson Mr. Roberts AP English 4 13 Apr 2010 Dee: the Sister Who Lost Her Identity Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is a short story about the clash between a mother and daughter. Dee is the child returning home to visit. The visit is not exactly pleasant and ends after a stand-off between her and Mama. Many readers see Mama as finally standing up for her own ideals while also refusing to conform to the rules Dee wishes her to follow. Dee follows different rules of society and religion than…

Words 1685 - Pages 7

Everyday Use Heritage Analysis

Meaning of Heritage in “Everyday Use” In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, she “addresses herself to the problems of African Americans who risk deracination in their quest for personal authenticity” (Cowart). The story main conflict is the struggle over homemade quilts which symbolize understanding of heritage, which is shown through the characters Dee and Maggie who have two different approaches on the word. Dee understanding of the word heritage is erasing American culture and going…

Words 448 - Pages 2