In Alice Walker's short story, "Everyday Use", the narrator is the uneducated, but loving and hardworking mother. Dee and Maggie are her daughters, whom she cares deeply for. Maggie, the youngest daughter, shares many outlooks on life as does her mother. She has never left home and she and Mom are very close. She learned valuable traditions and their history from her family members. Unlike Maggie, Dee is in college and couldn't wait to leave home. She always had ambition and goals that she set high for herself. Mom's relationship with Dee is not close, but she dreams of their bond being rekindled. While waiting for Dee to arrive, she thinks about television shows where "mother and child kiss" and then "the child talks about how she wouldn't have made it without her help" (Walker 155). Walker states, “I have a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly reunited on a television program like this” (155). Due to Mom and Maggie's practical attitude, they have a lot of trouble understanding Dee. Since being exposed to the world outside of their rural southern town, she feels liberated thanks to the knowledge she has gained. While Maggie and Mama consider the butter turner, quilts, and benches common household items, Dee considers them "priceless" works of art. Dee feels more connected to African-American heritage, but Maggie exemplifies what the culture really is. Johnson, as she describes herself, is a “strong-boned woman with rough, industrious hands” (155). She can do a man's work "as ruthlessly as a man" (155). She has never left the house and she doesn't see the need to. When she was in second grade, her school was closed and that was the end of her education. For this reason, Mom did not...... middle of paper ......es Mom to be the narrator because telling the story from the sisters' point of view would be more biased. Maggie is lonelier and Dee still thinks she's right. Mom gives her honest opinion about the two sisters even though “she is not a reliable source” (Farrell 181). Ultimately, Maggie shows that it is far better to know her family heritage than to try to live and be something she is not. Works Cited Farrell, Susan. "Fight Vs. Flight: A Reappraisal of Dee in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." Studies in Short Fiction 35.2 (1998): 179. MasterFILE Elite. Internet. March 18, 2014.Tuten, Nancy. “The Everyday Use of Alice Walker.” Explainer 51.2 (1993): 125. Academic research completed. Internet. March 18, 2014. Walker, Alice. “Daily use.” Literature and the writing process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day and Robert Funk. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River: apprentice, 2014. 155-161.