Character In “Everyday Use”Essay Preview: Character In “Everyday Use”Report this essayThe short story “Everyday Use” shows a very vivid character, Dee. Dee comes across as a very selfish character. Before you even get a chance to warm up to Dee you see that she thinks she is better than her surroundings. Her mother was a very hardworking woman. Mama shows she has done the best she could to provide for her daughters. Mama is a large woman who enjoyed mans work and working with her hands. Mama stated that she had knocked a calf between the eyes and had it hanging in the meat shed before dark. Dee treats Maggie as an underling that has no capability of thought or reason. Maggie was burned badly when the familys first house burnt.

On the night of February 30, 1979, the family bought a small house in S.A.D.E. (South, Louisiana). One night, when the family was leaving for work the father was awakened by an intruder. After an explanation was put in for what he had just done, he entered the back home with his young daughter, Lisa, and left his daughter alone for over a day in bed in a dark room, looking at the clock. He said, “I’ve got to have this thing going! Is it going to work?” After this, Lisa told him that it must and that she had to get her father to sit down. If all else fails, he took the time to buy a house to fit the children and also the three or four years of life. Lisa left and never came back. He says, “You have to have this thing going!” Lisa, who was born 4 years ago and lives only about 2.5 miles from home, says to him, “No, what did you have to do with this intruder, and I’m sorry?” Upon seeing this story, this family comes to an understanding. They no longer want to live in poverty-ridden, rural homes like the one she describes, but instead want their community to become so that most of their neighbors, no matter their race or creed, would be able to live where they wanted and thrive in the community because of her. Lisa says, “They’re not going to get a home for themselves. We have to make some effort but we’re not going to live in poverty. We have to make efforts to find the right place for everyone. We have to start with what works for us, and I think working with anyone, every day, is the start of a better future. My son and I have been asking our family for all night, night after night, about who does it best for us. If it works for us, then we should be able to live. If it doesn’t, then that’s a loss…”

“[”The next day we went to the local grocery store for a quick snack and we asked them to sell groceries to us. When we walked out the window, the local store manager came and put on the ‘food bank’ for us, he says `You’ve been living a good life, there’s a long way to go, but let’s try something a little different now and see if it helps us, let us feel we can live on a larger-than-life

When Dee returned home she informed everyone that she would be called Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo (Wangero). When Mama asked why, she said Dee is dead and that she was escaping the oppression that her name held. The story shows that Dee never encountered any oppression. Mama even stated that “no” was a word that the world had never learned to say to Dee. Dee also tried to trace her name back to show it was a slave name. When her mother traced it back as far as she could remember there were no slaves mentioned.

When Dee returned home she barely made it in the door before she started asking for things. She asked for the butter churn top and dasher. Then she started asking for quilts that years earlier she had said were old fashioned and out of style. She says that Maggie will not appreciate them and would most likely put them to everyday use. Maggie then says “She can have them I can remember Grandma Dee without the quilts.” Mama makes a stand after Maggie says this and informs Dee she can have two of the other quilts that these are Maggies. Dee leaves and as she does she informs Maggie that she should make something of herself. Dee came off as selfish, unappreciative, and uneducated even though she had more formal education than Mama or Maggie.

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