Everyday Use By Alice Walker The place where you hang your hat, where the heart is, is a link to the past, and through its door one walks into the future: home can be many things t one person. To many Georgians, home is the place where they come from, the place where the famiy line can be traced from memories and keepasakes. In "Everyday Use", Alice Walker explores the importance of home to a family of three women in Georgia. This story is told from the eyes of Mama, Dee and Maggie's mother. Walker uses Mama to characterize her daughters and herself in an unbiased light that only a mother could love or know. Mam is a "large, big boned woman wit rough, man working hands", "who can kill and clean a hog as mersilessly as a man"(1). Mama, a round cahracter, lives a life that contradicts Dee's ideas. Mama contributes it mostly to her and .
Maggie's lack of academis intelligence. She usually allows Dee to receive what she wants because of this difference. By the end of this short story, Mama puts her foot down. Mama describes Maggied, a dynamic character, with a tone of pity. "She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her buy"(3). Maaggies is accustomed to being pushed aside. Maggie is characterized in this story by her actions rather than her words. Her sullen attitude is seen in her mother's descripion of her simply walking. "Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog, run over soem careless person, sidle up to someone who is ingorant enough to be kind to them?"(2). Dee seems to be the cause of her angst. Near the conclusion, Maggie's sullen attitude is ahnged when her mother refuses to allow her to be pushed aside by Dee. "Maggie smiled. . . But a real smile not scared"(7). Dee felt she was different from the rest of her family. She was the olly one to attend college. .
She favors what was popularized by the world outside of her home. "Dee wanted nice things. . . at sixteen she had a style of her own"(2).
