Every Day use

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, written in 1944, narrates the story of black family composed of a Mother and her two daughters: Maggie and Dee. Dee is the oldest one. A point that we can easily notice as the story is developed is that Maggie is extremely jealous of her sister. She believes that her sister has a better life than she does. The mother is the one that narrates the story; she makes different descriptions …

…treats them differently. We can perceive as the story advances that there is an idea of prejudice in the story. Maggie has motives to believe that her sister has a better life than she has. Her mother, who was supposed to treat them equally, has preference for the older girl. She has plenty of reasons to feel jealous of her sister; in her situation, most of the people would feel the same way she does.