In Alice Walker's famous short story "Everyday Use", Dee is perceived as an unlikable character. It is difficult for the reader to feel sympathy for Dee as she possesses repellent characteristics; she is equally entitled, manipulative and self-centered. Although “Everyday Use” offers brief glimpses into the past, it is nearly impossible for the reader to have a full understanding of the truth about Dee's upbringing before the story. Ruth and Augustus Goetz's play The Heiress features the journey of Catherine, a character who, in the final scene, shares similar characteristics with Dee; however, the audience witnesses Catherine's difficult upbringing and the traumatic events that unfold before the final scene. In The Heiress, the audience sees a change in Catherine, explaining why she has become a cold-hearted character. “Everyday Use” is equivalent to the last scene of The Heiress, with the significant difference that the reader does not have the opportunity to experience Dee's journey. This comparison raises a question: Would the reader be more sympathetic to Dee if they truly knew her past? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay It is evident that Dee is the antagonist of Walker's "Everyday Use". While the term “antagonist” doesn't necessarily describe the villain of a story, Dee is clearly a villain. In the opening paragraph, the character and narrator, Mama, is afraid of her daughter Dee, while she and her youngest daughter, Maggie, await Dee's arrival. According to Susan Ferrell in her article “Fight vs. Flight: A Reevaluation of Dee In Alice Walker's “Everyday Use,” “Dee inspires in Mom a kind of awe and fear more suited to the advent of a love goddess than one would could wait for a mother to feel for a returning daughter." "(Ferrell). After returning home from college, Dee dresses in clothes that are strictly her style, completely different from the clothes of her sister and mother. Dee says the orchids at home are "tacky flowers" , and Mom simply imagines a time when Dee would pin an orchid on her shirt (Walker 78) Since leaving home, Dee has even changed her name to Wangero, saying, “'I couldn't stand it anymore. , bear the name of the people who oppress me'" (Walker 81). And during her visit home Dee brought along a boyfriend who says that farming and raising livestock are "not his style" (Walker 82). Although Dee has changed her appearance and lifestyle to escape her heritage, she also practices manipulation and authority tactics to get what she wants. “He always looked anyone in the eye. Hesitation was not part of his nature,” said his mother, and Maggie believes that Dee "has always held life in the palm of her hand, that 'no' is a word the world never learned to say to her" (Walker 78) . With an exaggerated level of appreciation for home, Dee tries to manipulate her mother into giving her a family heirloom to take with her to town. He arrives with a Polaroid camera and “never takes a shot without making sure the house is included” (Walker 81). As he sits down at the table he exclaims how wonderful the food is and how he never knew how "lovely" the benches were and that he could "feel rump prints" on them. All this before he says, “'I knew there was something I wanted to ask you if I could'” (Walker 82). In Catherine's final scene from L'Heiress, she shares similar characteristics with Dee. Morris arrived at Catherine's house, in the house inherited from her late father. Catherine practices great manipulation by agreeing to pursue marriage once again with Morris and, after his attempt to hug her, says, “Not now,Morris, later. If we start kissing we will never get to the rectory” (Goetz 87-88). While Morris gathers some things from his house before escaping, Catherine practices Dee-like authority by closing the curtains on all the windows and ordering her maid to close the front door. As he goes up the stairs, Morris knocks on the door, calling for Catherine, but she doesn't look back. Based on the final scene of The Heiress alone, it would be difficult for audiences to sympathize with Catherine. Instead, the audience cheers for Catherine because she has lived her journey. At the beginning of Act II, Catherine agrees to marry Morris, the first man to court Catherine, a woman who is not described as beautiful. On the night of their escape, Catherine waits impatiently for Morris downstairs in her father's house with her bags packed; however, Morris never comes home to get her, and she never sees him again until the final scene two years later. Catherine's view of love had previously been distorted by her relationship with her father. Catherine's mother died giving birth to her. Her father continually talked about how Catherine's mother had so much "grace" and "cheerfulness" and how she was "a pleasure to watch and be with." Instead of loving Catherine as his daughter, her father says, “I have focused my whole life on seeing her approach the perfection of her mother” (Goetz 19). After experiencing this journey of heartbreak with Catherine, the audience can easily see the reasons for her evil actions in the final scene. Considering the context clues, it is possible to draw reasonable conclusions from Dee's unwritten past that would provide her with greater sympathy. character. It is important to remember that “Everyday Use” is told through Mama's eyes: “perceptions are filtered through her mind and her opinions about her two daughters are not to be accepted uncritically” (Farrell). The way Mama describes Dee may not be entirely true, since the narrator is also a partial character in the story: "Mama's expectations of Dee tell us more about Mama herself than about Dee" (Farrell). It's clear that Dee has always been different from her family. She was intelligent, outgoing, and "at sixteen she had a style of her own: and she knew what style was" (Walker 79). It is reasonable to imagine that Dee felt stifled by her family and was punished for being different. In a family with such strong roots, Dee was probably never encouraged to dream big or pursue anything outside of her small town. These are plausible reasons that would cause Dee to take on the evil characteristics the reader sees in “Everyday Use.” At the end of the story, Dee says to her little sister, “'You should try something too, Maggie. It's a new day for us. But the way you and mother still live, you'd never know it'” (Walker 84). What if the story could have been told from Dee's perspective over the course of several years, with “Everyday Use” as the final scene? Would the reader think of her differently? While the reader may not be able to sympathize with the Dee presented in the story, they may be able to sympathize with her past. Comparison between Dee and Maggie in Everyday Use by Alice Walker In Everyday Use by Alice Walker the sisters Dee and Maggie can no longer disagree. Although the small differences and similarities are obvious to the reader, they become clearer when the mother sees them. You can see more characteristics of him when his mother shows him. The mother is very good at noticing different qualities among her daughters, especially those she is unaware of. Dee is a very positive and optimistic girl – about herself. Confident and self-assured, he has no doubts about himself and his life. He thinks he knowswho he is, that he knows what he wants and is ready to achieve these things in any way possible. Her mother said that Dee had always clung to life, that "No" was a word the world had never learned to say to her. «Maggie, on the other hand, is very insecure. She spends most of her time preparing for Dee's visit and finding out what Dee might think of her. Even though she is young, which her mother always reminds her of, her lack of confidence makes her seem younger. During the conflict. quilting, Mom realizes that Maggie is more than ready to let go of the quilt knowing that she will lose the battle with Dee. Even though it was clear that Dee and Maggie liked each other, even on a deep level, there was still a lot of conflicting tension between the two. The mother is the first to show tension. Dee is disappointed in Maggie when Mom admits that she thought Dee really hated her sister. Even though they lived in the same house as children, the two sisters live in different worlds. Polite and worldly, Dee is always disappointed, childish and rude to Maggie. Likewise, Maggie is nervous about Dee and for many of the same reasons. Maggie is also bothered by the physical damage she suffered when her house caught fire while Dee left the house on time. Maggie is always compared to her sisters and only gets nervous when Dee is around. Perhaps the only person Dee respects is herself, while Maggie respects others, especially her own family, a trait that surprises her mother towards the end of the story. Since Dee spends much of the story obtaining the family heirloom from her mother, she becomes stubborn about the blanket promised by Mama Maggie. Maggie would put them to sleep and within five years they would be in tatters. Less than that! 'Dee believes that only she can truly respect her legacy, even if she even thinks about it. Maggie, on the other hand, has no problem wrapping her sister up. He surrenders without selfishness. This act of kindness, what her mother saw as a sign that Maggie would be more grateful for her inheritance than Dee, changed Mom's perception of her two daughters, finally realizing that Dee was selfish and Maggie was altruistic. Both Dee and Maggie spend more of their stories getting someone's approval. Dee tries to gain Mom's approval by showing how educated and loving she is about her heritage, while Maggie tries to be admired by her sister. In the end, Mama Dee's sympathy was even less than before, and Maggie got approval, but from Mama. “When I looked at him, something hit me on the head and he came down the stairs.” Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Despite the fact that Dee and Maggie grew up together, they ended up growing up as two very different people. They both took their qualities for what they were and didn't think about it. The mother, on the contrary, recognized these qualities as if they were the most evident aspects. Thanks to this, and the blanket incident, the mom was able to completely piece together the bigger picture of her daughter and finally see who they really are. Works Cited: Bakardjieva, M. (2019). Selfie, image and body makeover. In Digital photography and everyday life: Empirical studies of material visual practices (pp. 141-156). Routledge.Chen, Y., & Yan, Z. (2016). Does pleasure lead to following? The impact of social media affinity on social media following. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 33(5), 391-399. Gnambs, T., Appel, M., & Batinic, B. (2018). Selfies and personality: who publishes self-portrait photographs?. Personality and individual differences, 126, 129-132. Henderson, L., & Gilding, M. (2014). “I am more than my image”: A qualitative study of practices, 113(1), 1-38.