Alice Walker "Everyday Use"

This story recalls me so much my two cousins: one of them Vita (the oldest one) behaving in her own way almost as a boy and making her dreams and thoughts apart from others and the youngest one Julia looking exactly as her mother (my taunt), sweet beautiful girl who used to have the best clothes and most of love and attention in their family. Logically, both of them never got along with each other until the day when Julia went to the same college as her graduating sister situated far away from their home town and needed her help with everything. Finally, she realized that Vita is her family and the only person besides parents who she can really rely on…Maggie seems to be quieter and less demanding than Julia, however their problem is in the same lack of personality and acceptance of differences. Walker demonstrates how blind, miserable and isolated look those who do not understand and have no intention to learn about possible different ways to see the world whether it is another culture or even your own child just somehow gifted with original ideas. Maggie and her mother stay apart of the whole world around them and spend most of time by taking care of the objects of their house, their closed matrix. If the world consisted of such people, it would never move on. Dee is a rebel with a controversial character, but one thing is for sure: she has an identity which is able to face the world. The advice she gives to her sister: “You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it.” (705) is the message to each of us. It is the philosophy of the contemporary society, society which needs new blood, new ideas, and new heroes.