Think Write Model: “Everyday Use”

The final scene in “Everyday Use” is crucial to the whole story. Here is where we see Walker’s point about the true meaning of heritage and where we see Mama finally do what is right by her daughters. It’s not that she mistreated Maggie, but she tended to put her aside because she wasn’t worried about her. She was so preoccupied by trying to meet Dee’s needs and be a good enough mother to this prodigy child that she can never say no to her. All too often, we can assume, that a yes to Dee means a no to Maggie. But here Mama finally turns it around. Interestingly enough it’s when she sees Maggie’s acquiescence to her sister that she realizes the disservice she’s done to her younger daughter over the years. Mama describes Maggie in this moment with “She looked at her sister with something like fear, but she wasn’t mad at her. This was Maggie’s portion. This was the way she knew God to work.” At this point, Mama literally has an epiphany and sees that Maggie actually believes that she deserves less than her sister, that Dee’s beauty and intelligence literally make her more worthy, that God likes her better and therefore gives her more. At this very moment, Mama realizes that she has allowed this to happen that she has contributed to Maggie’s low view of herself. So she abruptly grabs the quilts from Dee, calling her Miss Wangero and dumps them onto Maggie’s lap. The very name she gives to Dee shows her distance. She has essentially disowned Dee in the this moment; she no longer calls her by the name she gave her. Instead she gives her the distant title of a stranger, Miss Wangero.

In the interchange about heritage, we see the next crucial moment. Walker shows, ironically, how Dee, the college educated genius, knows nothing.