Dee And Her Mother example essay topic

How many children's stories have you read that began with the words "once upon a time"? We know that this is fiction. What about fiction that sounds so real that you are not sure whether it is fiction or actual events that really happened. In the story Everyday Use, everything sounds so real that I actually thought of a family member that compared so closely with Dee. We can easily compare the fiction of "Everyday Use" with people of today by understanding that social classification happens in every family, whether in fiction or real families.

In the opening of the story, Maggie and her mother, the narrator of the story, are waiting for Maggie's sister to arrive. No doubt they have spent all morning cooking and cleaning in anticipation of making a good impression on Dee and her boyfriend or husband (they are unsure of which). Many families usually have on member who has moved away to a larger city and only comes home to the country (emphasis added) for special occasions to grace everyone with their more sophisticated (emphasis added) presence. Maggie is a humble, homely girl who loves her sister, but is jealous of her always getting her way.

Sibling rivalry happens in every home in which there is more than one child. The mother describes herself as a hard working woman, used to doing as much as a man. Dee would rather she look more feminine, but mother feels like Dee is ashamed of her. Have you ever been ashamed of your mother for being overweight, not wearing the best of clothing, or driving a older model car?

When Dee arrives, she is dressed in a brightly colored dress that touched the ground, with large gold earrings and bracelets. Dee knows that she will be better dressed than her mother or her sister. Why would she knowingly try to dress better? Is it done to embarrass her family, or just to make it clear without words that she has the financial means to have more than they have? Dee makes the announcement that she no longer wants to be named after white people, but wants to be called Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, an African name. The mother recalls three generations of women that Dee was named after and that the name could have carried back in the generations before the Civil War.

Many children at some time or another want to change their name for some far-fetched reason, whether it is because someone has picked on them, or people keep mispronouncing it or like Dee wanting a name from her heritage. Dee, Wangero, is treating the visit home, like she has stepped back in time and nothing has changed but herself. She tells her friend about times when her family could not afford to do better, even though her mother and sister still can not afford to do any better. After the meal, Wangero proceeds to tell her mother that she wants several everyday things that mother and Maggie still use for daily living, so that she can decorate her home with them. This is what we would normally do with antiques.

When Wangero stated that she was going to take two hand made quilts, Maggie was hurt because she knew that Dee would be given them, because Dee always got everything that she wanted. The quilts were to be a wedding gift for Maggie and John Thomas. After hearing Dee and her mother talk about the quilts, Maggie goes ahead and offers the quilts to Dee. When Maggie's mother sees her expression, she is hit with the fact that Maggie has always given in to Dee and she decides that it is not going to happen this time.

She hugs her youngest daughter and takes the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie. Sometimes as mothers we do unknowingly show favoritism between our children. We may feel that one child needs more than another. Dee conveniently forgets that she was offered a quilt when she went away to college and she turned it down because it was old.

The story is concluded by Dee telling them that they do not understand their heritage and that they have so many opportunities now as black females. Dee does not understand that her mother and sister are part of her true heritage. Maggie and her mother would rather live one day at a time in a life that time has past by than to try to live in Dee's world. Can you identify more with Dee or with Maggie and her mother?

We can relate this story to real life by understanding that social classification takes place in all walks of life.