Relationships In Everyday Use

3 Pages 813 Words

Relationships in "Everyday Use"

Like Dee in "Everyday Use", some people never learn the real value of family love. There is an unconditional love that comes with family. You love someone for the person they are inside. That is what is important. It is not where you live, or what type of clothes you have, or even what your family looks like. The material things should not matter. Unfortunately, some people forget this and loose sight of what really matters. The story of "Everyday Use" is a perfect example of this.

The author lets us know right at the beginning that there is some kind of conflict between the mother and Dee that has kept them apart. When the mother starts to tell us about a dream she has where she and Dee meet again on a TV talk show, she makes a reference to the way she really looks, "large big-boned woman with rough, man working hands" (492). Then she says that is not the woman she is on the show. She is the way her daughter wants her to be, "a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake" (492). If Dee really loved her mother, she would not care what she looked like.

Early on when both Dee and Maggie are still children, their house burned down. Maggie was severely burned in this fire. As the mother carries Maggie out of the burning house, she sees Dee watching the fire "with a look of concentration" (492) on her face. The mother felt that Dee hated this house and also hated Maggie. Dee always wanted more. She was ashamed of her family and the way they lived. Maggie and the mother were never ashamed. This is their life and they seem happy with it and with each other. Maggie has always been in "envy and awe" of her sister. She thinks her sister always has and always will get what she wants. After the fire, the mother and the church raised the money to send Dee away to school.

When Dee comes back to visit as an adult, the mother and Maggie are both nervous. They...