Thursday, February 15, 2018

Why won't Dee bring her friends to visit the family's new house?

Dee's mother knows how much Dee hated their first house. It's curious, isn't it, that Mama and Maggie got caught in the flames when the old house burned down—Maggie actually did sustain burns which have left scars—but Dee was already outside watching the house burn? One might wonder if Dee actually burned that house down. Mama seems to associate Dee with fire (whether intentionally or not): she says that, as a child, Dee "burned [them] with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know," and she even compares Dee's orange and yellow dress to "the light of the sun." Maggie, on the other hand, wears a "pink shirt and red blouse": the colors of skin that has been burned. It's as though Dee is connected with burning while Maggie is connected with being burned.
Mama says that this new house is "three rooms, just like the one that burned" except the roof is of a different material. It has no windows, only holes cut in the walls. This house is so similar to the one that mysteriously burned, the one that Dee hated so much that Mama suggested she do "a dance around the ashes," so it stands to reason that Dee hates this house as much as the last one. The fact that she specifically says that she'll never bring her friends to visit also implies that she feels a level of embarrassment about the way her family lives.


"Everyday Use" has as its narrator the mother of two daughters. Maggie, the younger daughter, is compared to a "lame animal." She is shy, quiet, and insecure. Maggie is thin and covered in scars from being burned in a house fire. The other daughter, Dee, is fearless and confident. She is educated and more comfortable around other people. Maggie always looks down, while Dee looks people in the eye.
The narrator shares that in a letter Dee says that she will visit her mother and sister wherever they "choose" to live. The mother feels as if Dee will not bring her friends to the house because she thinks the house isn't good enough. The mother shares that Dee "wanted nice things." Their house with no real windows and a tin roof located in a pasture would most likely not meet Dee's standards.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?

In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...