Everyday Use Character Analysis Essay

Words: 595
Pages: 3

Sisters can have completely different personalities and goals in their lives. This is a prime example of this with the story, Everyday Use by Alice Walker. Two daughters are raised by their single mother, Mama and the daughters are complete opposites of each other. The younger daughter is shy, unattractive, humble and unintelligent. While the other daughter is confident, attractive, arrogant and intelligent but has bad morals. With this in mind, people do not need to be intelligent to be strong, looks can be deceiving, and going through struggle can help with self-growth. Maggie is the youngest daughter and has been through more struggle than her older sister Dee. Part of the reason for Maggie's unattractiveness and shyness stems from a fire …show more content…
Dee continuously bullies her younger sister by pointing out her flaws. Since, Maggie is a shy individual, she usually tries to avoid theses situations. However, Mama wants Maggie to stand up for herself and face all the issues between her and Dee. Yes, Mama is right about Maggie needing to stand up to her sister, but Mama should do more to protect Maggie. Maggie has already been through hell with the fire and her self-esteem is constantly being brought down by Dee. Mama disregards how fragile Maggie is and needs to help her with Dee’s bullying. It is important to realize, that all these factors contribute to how Mama, Dee and Maggie treat one another. The relationship between Mama and her daughters is extremely interesting to say the least. Dee is an independent person with good qualities, but bad morals. Dee try to get away from her roots and she only wants materialistic things. Maggie, however, has good morals and keeps close to her heritage. Mama realizes this the difference in their personalities and loves her daughters for who they are. This short story was about how a dysfunctional family treats one another and how Maggie is the strong one, why Dee burned down the house, and that Mama needs to show more protection towards