Write: a 4-5 page essay* on the short story

In Alice Walker 's Everyday Use ' Dee 's life is a pieced together quilt of cultural ideals and her own skewed perceptions of heritage . As a child she viewed her family with shame . As an adult , Dee sees them with interest but with the remove of an anthropologist , embracing of the symbols of family and hard life but contemptuous of the reality in her mother and sister . Even as Dee embraces the history of her family through objects such as the food , furniture , and quilts she is unable to reconcile these objects with

her family and the lives they live

From the outset of the story , Dee is shown to be the stronger and more capable of the sisters . Dee is liberated by her education and changing persona she changes from feeling shame at her poor background and blackness to a feeling of pride in her African roots and by extension her poor family 's roots . From her mother 's narrative , it is easy to see that education was a tool Dee used to separate and place her above her mother and sister , She used to read to us without pity forcing words lies , other folks habits , whole lives upon us two , sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice (Walker . Rather than enriching her household with the things she learned , passing her knowledge onto her sister and mother , Dee used this knowledge as proof that they lacked her intelligence . Even though separated for some time prior to when the story...