Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Everyday Use by Alice Walker is a story that wants the reader to understand how you can take for granted where you came from. The mood of the story is bitter sweet in that they are all happy to see Dee, but also nervous as to what she will think of the same type of living she frowned upon before. The protagonist in the story is Mama, and she tells the story in the first person as it is happening. The antagonist is Dee, who seems to have suffered through man vs. society conflict when she was younger. Dee makes up stories about her family and wants better things than what she has, she is ashamed of her family. Maggie is Mama’s confidant, who she tells everything to and knows she is loyal and trustworthy. When Dee comes to visit one day, Mama is surprised to see that she is all of a sudden interested in their way of living which is ironic because this was the reason she had left for the city in the first place. Now, all the things that Dee thought were old, useless and gross are part of her history that needs to be showcased, preferably in her new home. Hakim-a-barber, Dee’s significant other, is a static character who is intrigued by the family’s way of living. The climax of the story is when Dee, who is used to never hearing the word “no”, wants a quilt that Mama and Big Dee made. Maggie, who is never considered and use to not getting anything ever, was promised the quilt and when Dee asked for it, she hides in her room to cry because she knows that Dee was going to take it. When Maggie tells Dee she can have the quilt, Mama becomes a developing character because she puts her foot down and says no to Dee, which surprised both Maggie and Dee. The outcome makes Dee come to terms that things have changed and things aren’t going to be as they were.




Dee was annoying. Everything told about her made her seem self absorbed, vain, and hypocritical. Poor Maggie was the one who suffered the most and Dee was the one who complained. One thing is to know what you want and do everything possible to get it and another to make up stories and to boss people around to get it. When Dee gets the opportunity to go to Atlanta with help from the church she does not even thank them. When she returns, Maggie is scared to see her and Mama wonders of what she will think of them. Dee comes back all changed and now loves her heritage and where she came from. She is such a hypocrite, and she just wanders in thinking it was going to be like before and she would be able to get what she wants just by asking for it. Maggie is so used to not getting anything that when the quilt was brought up she did not want to give it away but assumed she might as well give to Dee, she was going to take it anyway. This is when Mama puts her foot down and tells Dee no. Mama should have not let her take the other things she wanted either, she did not deserve them.