There is a girl named Maggie and she has a sister named Dee. They aren't treated the same at all by their Mama. Dee is the skinny beautiful girl that everyone likes and she gets everything handed to her by her mom. On the other hand Maggie gets nothing, and appear different than others because she was burned in a fire. Dee is sent to college by her mother, and years go by and Dee comes back to visit. She has changed her name and dresses in African style clothing, also with her is her new husband. Dee starts taking old objects from the past. She takes a dash and some quilts. The mom see that Dee won't take cure and pass on the family heritage with the quilts so Mama takes them from Dee. Dee can't believe this is happening. Mama then gives the quilts to Maggie because she knows that Maggie will pass the heritage on to future generations by her sewings.
Response
“Everyday Use” was a story that I thought was a good explanation of how women live their lives. If you think about the title and what it means, it defines women. Women are thought to be the ones who do the house work; they cook, clean, sew, etc. This is exactly what Mama had done all her life in this story. She passes these same trades onto Maggie. Maggie is the less-fortunate girl in the family. Her sister Dee is pretty and smart. The only reason Maggie is less-fortunate is because when she was younger the house started on fire and Maggie couldn’t get out of the house without getting her skin burned. At the start of the story Mama never pay attention to Maggie and this view transforms throughout the rest of the story.
Mama never had an education and she wanted one of her daughters to have one, so she sends Dee to college. This was what Dee wanted because she always complained about living on a farm and doing outside work. Dee comes back years later and has changed her appearance. Mama doesn’t like the change and Maggie never really liked Dee in the first place.
When Dee is looking around the house she sees objects that represent where she’s from. She asks Mama if she can have a hand carved butter churn and a dasher. Then she goes up into Mama’s room and takes the old quilts and garments from a chest. She explains how she is going to display all this stuff at her house. Mama doesn’t like this is idea at all and snatches the quilts from Dee’s grasp and gives them to Maggie. This angers Dee, and she says that Maggie won’t appreciate the quilts because she’ll use them for “everyday use”. Mama explains that Maggie knows how to fix them or re-sew a whole new quilt if needed.
The term, “everyday use” is not a bad thing like Dee makes it sound. If you use something for everyday use that means it’s important to you. It means that you value whatever it is and want to make sure you’re reminded of it every day of your life. So when Dee refers to everyday use being bad she’s actually thinking illogical.
The reason mother takes the quilt from Dee and gives them to Maggie is because she knows that the heritage of the family will live on. She knows that Maggie will be able to sew quilts to pass on to her family and so on. If she had given the quilts to Dee she would never pass them on and eventually they would be thrown away or sold to someone who had no appreciation for them.
Not only does Mama transform throughout this story, but so does Dee. First of all she changed her name because her old name represented oppression. Dee also changes her lifestyle and her looks. By doing this Dee is losing her heritage and how her life is defined. Heritage is a key part of this story and that’s why Mama wouldn’t let Dee take the quilts. She knew that Dee wouldn’t appreciate them as much as Maggie and she wouldn’t take care of them as well.
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