EVERYDAY USE

Introduction

            The name of the character to be discussed is Maggie, in her short story, “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker is the author and tries to figure out how things are happening in daily lives. The author outlines that the issues based on the daily life in the story are the disagreement around the characters which is similar to that of the comforters.  The comforters are not likely to be used for friendliness but their everyday use is enfolded in symbolizing a social or chronological superlative. Talking of one of the characters, Maggie is Mama’s skittish younger daughter who was scarred in a house with fire when she was a child and is uncomfortable about her burns. She lives and works with her mother and she is an innocent young woman who has not yet realized who she is. She is personified with traits such as shy and weak, she is anxious and disturbed, she also lacks education.

            Maggie is shy and weak due to the scars she has on her legs and arms.  Dee her elder sister states that Maggie’s major problem is that she does not understand her heritage and as a result she will not make anything of herself.” Maggie does not really understand what her sister means by legacy but she knows how to cover.  She feels weak when she sees her sister dressed in a dress that is so showy which also discomforts her mother’s eyes. Her damaged body bears a resemblance to the faded patches of the covers while the stitching looks like healing. Her mama also says that “She will attitude miserably in turnings unattractive and humiliated of the burn marks down her arms and legs, observing her sister with union of jealousy and admiration” (409). She is literally changing her self-esteem every day as well as she and her mother make things every day. Her shyness is caused by her being secluded from the external world. This fear that she has due to her not exposed to the external world makes Maggie move with shy making her drag her feet walking and lingers uncomfortably in entrances rather than getting involved in her personal life. Her mother is being much protective of her but she is in fear that the shyness in her will causes her shortcomings and problems.  The scars that are making Maggie shy are symbols of the scars that the African- American carriers which come from the fire of slavery (485).              

            Maggie is anxious and disturbed; she portrays cleanliness but is innocent by selfishness or compound and emotional wants.  As she was harshly scorched in a house with fire at her childish age, her damaged and horrible outlook does not make it possible to signify her kind and plentiful condition.  Due to her anxiety, she lives at home under her mother’s protection and she remains almost unharmed by the external world. As her homebound segregation protects her, she is also affected by the isolation as she does not get the education and this forms the shyness in her. Even though her mother says that she is going to get married to Thomas, it is also unclear that the marriage will take away her fear and disturbances and this will also not make her stronger to drive her personality.  Her mother describes her fear when she states that, “Maggie will remain in anxiety until after her sister goes” (408).  Although Maggie’s relationship with Dee is full of jealous, she seems to be disturbed on why her sister was gifted with an easy life while her expectations and wishes were once in a blue moon. The time that Maggie portrays her disturbances is when her sister tries to take the covers that their mother had promised to give her.  She is irritated by her sister when she drops the plates and bangs the door annoyed. Her nature fear makes her give up he covers to her sister while this makes her mother pity her and becomes angry of Dee.  Maggie does not have a will and this brings about her innermost disturbances when the cover which she needs most in the domain is near to be unavailable (502). 

            Maggie is a character who is not educated. She barely knows the external world but the only one she came from.  By her being uneducated, she can only read haltingly in that she only does what she is told and this makes her feel comfortable of the life without any complains.  Although she lacks education, she has learned to be self-confident.  Her sister lack of knowledge has made an unfriendliness to the family while a lack of education has harmed and silenced Maggie. Maggie lacks education but despite her sister being educated, she lacks knowledge which is common in Maggie.  Maggie’s life seems like complete and fate.  She is a victim of education in that she has problems in reading and this makes her visual affected. The narrator of the story emphasizes, “Maggie read out to me but she staggers laterally genially but can’t see well.  She knows she is not optimistic” (13).   Despite her lack of education, her personality is based on special strengths.  Although she did not attend school and learn the things that her sister has, she has learned to comfort herself.  Her capability to comfort herself is something that she shares with her ancestors and this makes her get much connected to them.  For her not going to school, she still has a greater and superficial knowledge sense of her family when she tells her mother that Dee can actually have the covers as she can still remember her grandmother without them (74).   

Conclusion

            The main conflict that the author conveys in the account is Maggie’s familiarity of the daily effects and her target to their consumption and for their purposes. Her associate Dee ponders herself more educated and who reasons that everyday thing should be suspended and well-regarded as traditional.  She is not senseless but is blemished from a house fire and the mother has caused her backflow.  She is conceited and not used to be told nope and she is conscious of the African custom as she shows in her outfit and her fiancé who had implemented an African title that no one can articulate.  She is quite and always giving to her fellow sister thus when her sister claims in taking away the covers that her mother had vowed to give her as a bridal reward she allows her to take them.  Through irritation, she bangs the kitchen door and throws the plates down.  She finally comes back to the house resigned to give her sister the wedding covers and this makes her mother stand against Dee telling her that she cannot take Maggie’s covers.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

EVERYDAY USE, Norton anthology of African American literature. (2014). Place of publication not identified: W Norton.