Rewrites of Paper 1           

        In the essay “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. Dee is very aggressive by nature and does not have any respect for people either younger or elder than her

       Basic concepts in the psychoanalytical theory that are common in “Everyday Use” include the defenses, and core issues. A few of the defenses Dee uses include low self-esteem, denial and avoidance. Maggie has a core issue which is self esteem .I feel that she is going through this psychological problem because of the burn scars down on her arms and legs. Maggie’s low self esteem is evidence in her body language when the narrator claims “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burned scars down her arms and legs ,eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her” (Walker).

 Dee was in denial that she ever came from a poor family. By keeping her upper-class lifestyle and never visiting her home, she could completely avoid remembering where she came from. By avoiding her home she can make a new image for herself and suppress her family and her past. To do this, Dee becomes obsessed with her image. By denying her past and by avoiding reminders of her past, Dee forms a psychological wound when the narrator claims “She wrote to me once that no matter where we “choose” to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends” (Walker).

Insecure or unstable sense of self is another core issues that Dee has hidden deep in her id. Dee is insecure and has an unstable sense of self. She isn’t completely sure who she is. She came from a poor, low-class, African-American family, but she was able to get a college degree. Is she still a part of her poor family? Or is she now in the middle-class? Because she is dangling between her old and new lives, she isn’t sure who she is.  “Our sense of self is insecure or unstable…this core issue makes us very vulnerable to the influence –for good or ill –of other people, and we may have the tendency to repeatedly change the we look(our clothing ,hairstyle, and the like )or behave as we become involved with different individuals or groups”(Walker).Dee changed the way she dressed because she is embarrassed of how she grew up in her family and changed  her name from “Dee” to “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo “ to protest being named after people who have oppressed her.