"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

Analysis-

Characters:
- The Narrator (who is also Maggie and Dee's mother)
- Maggie: who is the shy, withdrawn sister
- Dee a.k.a. Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo: who is the outgoing, flashy sister

Characteristics of the Characters:
- Narrator is an older black woman. She does what she needs to have done. She is wonderful at doing man's work. She loves her daughters. She understands that her daughters are extremely different. She sees Maggie's pain and sees her shyness around Dee.
- Maggie is very withdrawn. She was burnt very badly when their house burnt down. She is very uneducated. Shys away when her sister comes around.
- Dee is the flashy sister. She hates the fact that she was raised in a shack. Her family raised money so that she could go to Augusta for school.

Setting:
My guess is that the setting is in the South in the 1970's.

Plot:
Introduction - Introduces the characters, tells of them getting everything ready for Dee's visit. Tells of the fire and how Maggie was burnt.
Rising Action - Shows the pain in Maggie and discusses how Dee behaves.
Climax- When Dee comes home and tries to take things to "show" her heritage. Some of the items had already been promised to Maggie. Dee comments and says how she would just destroy them and not value them like the should be.
Falling Action- When the mother finally stands up to Dee and tells her that she can't have the quilts and tells Maggie that they had been promised to her. And that they meant more to her than they ever would to Dee.
Denoument- Dee leaves angry; Maggie and the mother go on living.

Conflict:
I would say that there was a man vs. society conflict, due to the fact that the mother and Maggie were leaving in social issues that denied them education. Dee, on the other hand, was given the opportunity to expand her horizon. She ventured out into the world and found a different way to live. She came back to visit her mother and sister and tried taking some family valuables. This didn't settle well when she tried to take some quilts that had been promised to Maggie. In the end, Maggie was able to keep the quilts.

Response-

I enjoyed this piece. It showed how difficult it was in those days. I almost felt the pain that Maggie was experiencing. She was the sister that had been burnt, and she was the sister that stayed at the house to help the family. Dee was the spoiled sister. She had everything handed to her and never seen the hardship that her family had to experience. I was extremely happy when her mother finally stood up to her (Dee) and said no. Maggie deserved the quilts and didn't need to be treated the way that Dee had treated her.