Everyday Use

         

                  In the story “Everyday use” the author Alice Walker speaks of a relationship between a mother and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. The mother narrates her story by introducing Maggie and her personality stating that Maggie was shy by nature, homely and was ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs due to the house fire. She lacks confidence and shuffles when she walks. Whereas Dee is Mama’s older daughter and is an educated woman. She is very aggressive by nature and does not have any respect for people either younger or elder than her.

    

              American dream, Competition and Commodification are three aspects of the Marxist theory that can be evidenced in “Everyday Use”. According to Lois Tyson, the American dream can be defined as: “a capitalist ideology associated specifically with American history and culture” (59).Dee considers her as a part of the American dream because she was born in a poor family but she went to college with the help of her community and made something of herself. Her standard of living was much better compared to her past. The second aspect that can be evidenced in Dee is competition .She was a smart girl from the very beginning as a young girl and was always comparing herself with that of other people. It can be witnessed that Dee competes with Maggie for the quilt made by her grandma when she says “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!”(Dee).The last aspect that can be found was Commodification.We can say that Dee is viewing the quilts in terms of their social status when she says “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts !She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.”She wants to show them off to her friends while Maggie will simply use them as she would any other quilt.