Never Changing Lifestyle

Never Changing Lifestyle

In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," Mama and Dee are two different people. Dee grew up to be different from her mother and Maggie. Mama describes herself as "a large big-boned woman with rough man-working hands" impassively, she describes Dee as having "nicer hair and a fuller figure than Maggie." Mama is like this so she can survive and provide for her and Maggie.

Mama is not an average mother. She is who she is so she can support herself. As Walker says in her short story "Everyday Use," "I am the way my daughter would want me to be a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake"(par. 5). Mama is like this so she can support Maggie and herself. Dee is the high maintenance type of girl. When the house that Mama, Dee, and Maggie lived in burnt down, Dee was not sad at all. She hated living in that house. When Mama and the church helped raise money, they sent Dee to School in Augusta, and have not seen her since.

Mama is big and man like because she has to support herself, and do man like chores. Mama could kill and skin a cow or pig. Her being like this helps feed Maggie and herself. Dee moved away and sent Mama and Maggie letters saying she was going to come visit one day. The day Dee showed up, she is dressed up and looking even more high maintenance than before she left. She told Mama not to call her Dee anymore that her new name was Wangero. Dee was not the same girl she was when she left, but Mama did not change one bit. She would do all the same chores she had to do to provide for her and Maggie. Maggie would do whatever kind of work that needed to be done around the farm to help out Mama as much as possible.

In conclusion Mama does not change her lifestyle in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." Mama's lifestyle pays off because she can do everything she needs to survive on her own. Mama likes to wear her flannel and overalls where Dee is a high class girl who likes to wear dress clothes and jewelry.