Many authors use the themes of oppression and victory to define a struggle. This technique allows readers to relate to the characters on a personal level. Alice Walker uses this theme constantly in her short story “Everyday Use” with her character Maggie and in her book The Color Purple with her character Celie. Both tales portray these women as underdogs who overcome obstacles to realize their full potential in the end. In the story “Everyday Use,” Walker takes us into the lives of Momma, Dee and Maggie, an underprivileged family in rural Georgia. Mom is described as a loving, hardworking woman who cares more about the well-being of her family than her appearance. The conflict arises with Mom's two daughters, Dee and Maggie, whose personalities are as different as night and day. Dee, the youngest, is an attractive, full-figured, light-skinned young woman with great creativity when it comes to getting what she wants and needs. Maggie, on the other hand, is darker-skinned, simple, and scarred by the fire that destroyed the family's first home. Throughout the story, we are told of Maggie's shy and withdrawn behavior. Her own mother described her as "...a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by a careless person rich enough to own a car...That's how my Maggie walks...with her chin on her chest, eyes on the ground, feet dragging, since the fire (Handout, Walker) She is constantly overpowered by her dominant sister who “held life in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word that. the world never learned to tell her” (Handout, Walker It seems that Walker herself finds Maggie inferior, given that she is a minor character in the story Things begin to change for Maggie around). the end when she receives the...... middle of paper ......ave brings them out of their protective and isolated shells In both stories, the theme of oppression, one mental and. the other physical, resulting in victory, one internal, the other external, proves that with determination and belief in a higher power, you can survive any situation. Works Cited Walker, Alice. “Daily use”. In Love and in Trouble, 1986Kelley, Margot Anne. “Sisters’ Choice: The Aesthetics of Quilting in Contemporary African American Women’s Fiction.” » Christian, ed., Everyday 167-94. Washington, Mary Helen. “An Essay on Alice Walker.” Christian, ed., Everyday 85-104. Christian, Barbara, ed. Daily use. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1994. Commentary on The Color Purple by Alice Walker. http://www.sparknotes.com Speilberg, Steven. The color purple by Alice Walker. Amblin Entertainment, Guber-Peters Company, The, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1985.