Idealism And Pragmatism In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

The mother at the end of the story agrees that they should be used for everyday use. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. “she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (walker). This shows that dee really wants the quilts but not for the reason her mother wants.

In secondary source, Kathleen Wilson describes how Maggie holds the quilts close to her heart. This is because her grandmother had owned the quilts before she passed away. These quilts are priceless to Maggie, and she certainly doesn't want Dee to steal them from her. From Maggie's perspective, Dee is being inconsiderate, and only cares about those quilts being hers, and not about what's in Maggie's interest. Dee, similar to Maggie also holds value to the quilts.

Dee has changed her clothing as well to fit her new beliefs and it is the traditional African clothing which Mama finds peculiar because that was not how she raised her daughters. Ironically, Dee says “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts” when she wanted to use them as decorations because they are beautiful, but never understood the meaning of the quilts and how it relates to their true

Mama was not happy about the request and suggested other quilts. Mama promised the quilt to Maggie. Mama wanted to ensure the family treasure would be used for everyday purposes and not put on display. Mama’s beliefs and decisions in the story were compelling and added to the complexity of the relationships between the characters. Mama, Maggie and Dee wanted to preserve the family heritage, but in different

She than compare Dee and Maggie, who is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and fuller figure. After their house brunt down, we find out Maggie was the most effected with it cause her to stay home. While her older sister Dee went off to get a better life and education with the help of their mother and their church raising money for her to go to Augusta for school. Dee comes back home and is undoubtedly seem she has changed. She comes with a new attitude and news she has changed her name form Dee to Wangero.

Everyday Use is written in first person point of view. The narrator is Mama, so everything that is written from her point of view. This perspective allows the readers to see some of Mama’s inner thoughts and personal commentary about that is happening. An example of this is, “I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she has told me they were old-fashioned, out of style,” (490).

In Ask Me No Questions, by Marina Budhos, America's fast food culture collides with Bangladeshi’s traditional values. In Bangladesh women are stuck as housekeepers and usually must obey their male counterparts. Taslima, Nadira’s fiery cousin, goes against the rules of her background and assimilates almost completely into the American culture. The Hossains aren’t as traditional as their family and give the girls many more freedoms and choices. They practice their Muslim faith while enjoying all the freedom America has to offer.

In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, a change in her daughter, Dee, causes Mama to grow a new appreciation for her often overshadowed daughter, Maggie. While Dee has returned to her home more educated, she has become ignorant to who she really is, causing a change in the attitudes of the characters towards each other. The new background that Dee has created for herself presents a sense of irony as her rise in education has resulted in her loss of knowledge about the world that she grew up in. After Mama refuses to allow Dee to take her grandmother’s old quilts because she promised them to Maggie, Dee claims that “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts... She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (926). From the

Dee says “Hang them” (Everyday Use). Referring to the quilts she yells at her mom because she think that Maggie will actually use them and ruin them. Dee just wants to use them for decorations. Dee is not seeing the sentimental value behind the quilts. How other’s see different cultures can be seen by those people in a whole new world than their own culture.

Her sister Maggie and her mother Mama are still the same way when Dee returned. "Proshansky and Newton stated that Africans in the United States who feel hatred toward their own racial group are to some degree expressing hatred for themselves as individuals"(Allen 57). Dee didn't like the way she grew up so she always wanted the fancier things. She didn't like the way Mama dress. Mama wore overalls all the time working hard.

The parents informs the way one views others and the world. In the short story “Everyday Use” By Alice Walker Dee had stated “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!”. (64) This quote explains and shows how Maggie and Dee’s mother influenced Dees views on others and the world. Their mother has influenced dee to believe that old clothes stitched together by their grandmother, are too important to give to maggie because “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use”. However others would say that peers influence the way one views others and the world also.

Mama describes herself as a big-boned woman with hands that are rough from years of physical labor.She wears overalls and has been both mother and father to her two daughters. Poor and uneducated, she was not given the opportunity to break out of her rural life. She doesn’t understand Dee’s life, and this failure to understand leads her to distrust Dee. Mama sees Dee’s life as a rejection of her family and her origins. No doubt when Dee sees [the house] she will want to tear it down” (155).

In Anne Moody’s memoir, she is faced with many obstacles and one of the major ones is her own mother, Toosweet. Toosweet resists the urge for the movement to continue because she projects her fear of change very clearly while Anne on the other hand is desperately aspiring change for blacks in the southern community. Toosweet sustains a hold on Anne encouraging her to live her life as everyone else and so she continues standing as a barrier between Anne and the movement. Yet, Anne finds all the more reason to continue her work as a member of the NAACP and Core. Anne not only wants to end segregation but to prove to her mother that she is capable of such an advance.

During the late 19th century to the early 20th century women, especially black women, barely had a say in anything done within the family. Janie was different, she was able to control her own destiny simply by leaving Logan for Joe, and marrying Tea Cake after Joe’s death. Janie was raised by her grandmother due to the fact that her mother was not around during this time. Her grandmother was raised in a time where there was no hope for a chance at a better life. Her grandmother told Janie that black women were the mules of the world (Hurston 14) , representing that they are the lowest of society and are used by people.

Dee and Maggie’s behavior did not change throughout the story, but Mama’s attitude proves to be drastically transformed by the end. As Dee is introduced towards the beginning, the author implies that Maggie thinks “her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that ‘no’ is a word the world never learned to say to her”. However, while Dee and Mama argue over the quilts, Mama claims, “I did something I never had done before: hugged maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands”. This action from Mama distinctly epitomizes her denial towards Dee. Mama’s rejection perfectly exemplifies her change, because in retrospect, Dee is portrayed as a girl who never had to think twice about