Characterization Essay

Vanessa Gaston
Period 2; English AP Lit.
9/25/08

Characterization Essay: “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker

In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, two totally different, yet vital characters are purposely put into a story battling the roots on heritage traced straight back to a family of three, Dee, the mother, and the youngest, Maggie. Alice Walker utilizes a flat and static character, Maggie, and a round character, Dee, who at the same time can be considered dynamic, to build up her story, using them as her foundation to create the meaning of her short story “Everyday Use”, which in fact is the clash between two different worlds who are two different sisters, when at the same time grow up in the same household.
One of the characters addressed in “Everyday Use” is Maggie. She is the youngest daughter the mother, who is not given a name, has. She probably isn't given a name because she isn't as significant to the story as the two sisters, where the real meaning is brought through. Maggie used to look up to her older sister, but would always be uncomfortable when Dee would come by to visit. “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed...eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe,” (Walker 91). This is when the type of characteristics Walker uses to describe Maggie comes into significance. Maggie remains the way she is described throughout the whole story. But Dee is not. Dee is a round character and she changes from the start and end of the story. The cultural clash between Maggie and her mother against Dee is ironic. The cultural difference between them is apparent because all three lived in the same “house [is] in a pasture” (93), but then Dee leaves. It has been known that two sisters usually come out differently, in most cases. Walker makes this known. For instance, Dee is intelligent in her studies and Maggie isn't. For Dee, “she used to read to us without pity...burned us with a lot of knowledge,” (92). But, as for Maggie, “she knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by,” (92). Dee went off to school after her mother was able to pay off her tuition with the help of her local church, so she was able to get a hold of a proper education. In contrast to Maggie, who probably had to stay home or most likely didn't attend a nearby school often enough to build on her intelligence.
Dee would never bring her friends over the house when she would come on her visits, probably due to her embarrassment of where she used to live, and for her friends to see what sort of dwelling she left behind—she would take the advantage of that. These differences between Dee and Maggie are what makes the meaning of Walker's story so inevitable. Two girls brought
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up in the same household grow up so differently. Dee believes that she has been oppressed by her
roots—her African heritage. It's ironic because when she used to live with her mother, she was embarrassed by her culture—where she and the rest of her family came from. Then, Maggie and her mother wait outside for the surprise of their life. They expect to see a Dee pull up in a car, but instead, find a Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo dragging along a Asalamalakim. The change in her name is a typical form of an African—so very stereotypical. She comes out of the car with a long “dress down to the ground, in [this] hot weather. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. Earrings, too, gold and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arm...” (93). Reading this enables the mind to immediately think of everyday African attire. Flamboyant dresses, bracelets, and earrings. She never dressed this way mainly because in the beginning, it was as if she didn't want to be a part of this. Walker describes Dee's outfit in such detail to emphasize how much this character changed from the beginning of the story, which is why she is a round character.
All of a sudden, Dee wants the many household items her mother has so kept in her home for many years, things that had a sacred significance. When her mother denies her the one thing that Dee wants—the quilt her grandmother knitted herself, she gets angry, after being told it is to be kept for Maggie when she gets married. What she says last at the end brings out Walker's meaning of the story and makes it clearer. “'You just don't understand...your heritage...it's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it,” (97). Since Dee had the opportunity to go out and see the world, her views on her culture changed and she begins to appreciate it. When she mentions the way her mother and Maggie live, she means to say that they are so closed in and that they will be unable to see the world around them, they can only see what is close to them. Once she leaves, it seems as though Maggie is happy. “Maggie smiled; maybe at the sunglasses. But a real smile, not scared,” (97). Her attitude changes once her sister walks out of the door. It might be because the sister she once had that rejected her roots is now embracing it or it could be that she actually left, and she could resume back to her comfort that she had before her sister came.
In conclusion, Alice Walker uses these two characters, Dee and Maggie, to bring out a greater meaning of life, how all it takes to change is to get out of one's comfort zone and see what the outside has in store. Also, how hypocritical a character can be without even knowing it, going from living in an oppressed home to becoming a stereotype African woman named Wanjero. One is sheltered in the arms of her mother and familiar with her culture, while the other is exposed to a greater outdoor and comes back with these false impressions. The two contrasting characters bring out this meaning with the qualities each one possess.