Mama In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

Due to Maggie being burned in the fire, it causes her to have not seek much attention from other people and have little self confidence. She is very shy and hides behind her mother to avoid interactions with people. Maggie is even nervous her own sister comes to visit. According to the text, Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe (297). Maggie is a static character.

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

Maggie and her mother share a sisterhood that Dee will never understand. Through the characters of Mama, Maggie, and Dee, Walker displays the theme of oppression in the short story “Everyday Use.” Through the character of Mama, Walker communicates oppression due to a lack of femininity, education, and an inability to say “no” to Dee. Mama is a burley woman who, unlike Dee, enjoys the lesser things that life has to offer. She excels in the face of hard labor but lacks the skill to pull off a feminine version of herself. Dee longs for her mother to fit in with the women of the decade: “…one hundred pounds lighter, skin like an uncooked barley pancake, glistening hair, and witty (Walker 1).” Dee doesn’t understand why Mama doesn’t want to embrace a softer side of herself; however, Mama is content with her lifestyle.

She simultaneously loves and resents her children because, while she is their mother, she feels that they have taken away her freedom and self-purpose. As Edna journeys in her awakening, she strives to find meaning for herself as Edna, not her children's mother. To prove she is more than just a mother, she distances herself from normal motherly responsibilities. “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?”(Chopin, 15) Edna's neglect of her children stems from others expectations for her to submit to and look after her

Mayella grew up with an abusive father, so she never learns how actions can have consequences. She doesn’t know how to see the harm in what she does, and in the book it said, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed,” (page 323). Mayella destroyed one of the only things she cared about, and that’s because she didn’t learn the value of the truth. Mayella Ewell’s life is made up of many lousy things which all come together and shape her as the erroneous girl that she is. She is uneducated, has no values, and because of this, doesn’t deserve to be treated with equality.

A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; it was what I had to become. It was a definition, always touched with emphasis, with reproach and disappointment. Also it was a joke on me(142)”. The main character does not take into account how her mother might want someone to bond with until she is older. Because of her immaturity she has a bad relationship with her parents and her brother even though her thoughts are justifiable.

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.

Susie is the main character, she is murdered at the age of 13 and the book is her watching her family and friends deal with her death well they try to find the murderer. well susies in heaven she doesn't actually like all that much she wishes she could be back on earth growing up with her family, well in heaven she wonders “Heavens where a girl like me didn't fit in. Where they horrific, these other heavens? worse than feeling so solitary among ones living, growing peers?”(119). She hasn't let go of earth yet which prevents her from being happy, she feels isolated and alone in heaven well she watches everyone she loves gets to grow up she wants to belong back to earth.

Had the protagonist conformed with society’s ideals, Mrs. Reed may not have rejected her niece in the abusive, cruel manner in which she did. Similarly, her image as a “poor and plain” protagonist only added to the inferiority of her status (182). This pessimistic outlook was the effect of years of abuse, negligence, mistreatment, and solitude. Though she was a well-rounded woman, when compared to the others, no qualities caused admiration unto the public, consequently causing her to easily be overlooked. St. John Rivers continuously highlighted her similarities to other females, yet their distinction through the passionate vigor of her character.

Curley’s wife is described as an attractive woman seeking attention. Through the dialogue between Curley’s wife and other characters, John Steinbeck portrays Curley’s wife as a woman with broken dreams, who is acting out for attention. The restrictions the men on the ranch have enforced on Curley’s wife have caused her to endure unending loneliness. As Crooks and Lennie are speaking to one another, Curley’s wife, standing in the doorway, is irritated that they won’t talk to her, and yells, “Well, I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while.

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).

Accused of being a “tart,” the lonesome woman felt trapped and forlorn in a loveless marriage with no friends or family by her side. Furthermore, she experienced distress because of the lack of support from her mother and the absence of hope for a joyful, extravagant future. As the only woman in the story, many readers can relate to her pain and

Her sins have led her to “partly… [have a] lack of demonstration in her manners” (150). Hester had realized that those who were rude to her in her time in need have no need for Hester’s kindness, which eliminates almost the entire village but a few. Pearl had started suffering with Hester from the beginning, the both dealing with the unjustness the Puritans liked to throw at them. Thanks to this, Hester has grown the protective side of her to keep Pearl safe and is often left in wonder by her child’s impish actions. She is now a mother by

In the story “Everyday Use” I find Maggie to be the most sympathetic. Maggie’s older sister, Dee, makes Maggie feel inferior to her. Maggie has burn scars and marks on her body, that makes her feel like she doesn’t look good. Dee always receive what she want and Dee is also smart. While Maggie isn’t so smart and doesn’t have the money or style to get what she wants.