Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use"

If you order your cheap custom paper from our custom writing service you will receive a perfectly written assignment on Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use". What we need from you is to provide us with your detailed paper instructions for our experienced writers to follow all of your specific writing requirements. Specify your order details, state the exact number of pages required and our custom writing professionals will deliver the best quality Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use" paper right on time.

Out staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use", therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use" paper at affordable prices with cheap custom writing service!

Dray Yarbrough


English 110


June 0, 00


Conflict Between Ways of Life in “Everyday Use”


Write my Essay on Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use"

In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the story starts out with Dee getting whatever she wants, but by the end, Mother is irritated into a torrent when she rips the quilts from Dee’s arms and sets them in Maggie’s lap. This outburst is brought about by a contrast of lifestyles between Dee and Mother. Throughout the story, these two women are shown to be complete opposites. Mother’s love is strong, but her patience wears thin. Dee flaunts her education; she puts a greater value in money than Mother or Maggie, and she does not appreciate her history and heritage as Mother and Maggie do. Dee’s and Mother’s ways of life are too contrasting for them to agree.


Education is the first conflict which is shown at the beginning of the story. Mother daydreams of meeting up with Dee on a TV show. Mother sees herself well spoken, the way Dee wants her to be. Mother then says this vision is “a mistake … Who ever knew a Johnson with a quick tongue?” (65). Mother tells us she has never been quick witted. In fact, she only has a second grade education whereas Dee is sent off to Augusta for school. Dee seems to resent the fact that Mother and Maggie do not have an education. It seems as though she would read to them just to flaunt her education “to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand” (66). While education is a conflict for the family, the conflict of money is shown in a more vivid display.


The difference of the value of money is probably the most obvious conflict between Dee and Mother. The most revealing image in the story is that of Dee “standing off under the sweet gum tree… as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall…” (66) while Mother pulls Dee out of the burning house. “She had hated the house that much.” (66) The old house, just like the newer one, only had three rooms and holes in the walls for windows. It is not an extravagant house, and Dee hates that fact. She shows this hatred when she writes her mother that she will visit but not bring any friends. The way Dee and Mother dress also shows a contrast between them. Mother is a “big-boned woman with rough man-working hands.” (65) She wears overalls and flannel nightgowns whereas Dee arrives in an orange and yellow, flowing dress. She has big, golden earrings, bracelets, and a fancy hair-do. Obviously, nice, earthly possessions means a lot more to Dee than Mother or Maggie. While Alice Walker directly tells us the conflict money creates, the most important clash arises through the importance of family history and heritage.


Dee and Mother look at family history in two different ways. A prime example is Dee’s changing her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. She sees the name Dee as a “slave name” whereas Mother sees Dee as a name going back generations and generations in the family “I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches” (68). Next, Dee decides she needs to take a few things with her. She snatches the churn top and dasher for her own. Mother and Maggie have used and still continue to use these items for years to make butter “You could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood” (6). Dee wants the churn top for a center piece, and she does not even know for what she will use the dasher “I’ll think of something artistic…” (6) The final straw for Mother occurs when Dee grabs the quilts. These quilts are promised to Maggie. She will use them; Dee wants to hang them. Dee is appalled to think that Maggie will actually use these priceless quilts however; while Dee is in school, she said these same quilts “were old-fashioned, out of style” (70). As Mother sees just how little Dee actually appreciates these heirlooms, she rips the quilts away from Dee and gives them back to Maggie. Mother’s love can be tested but not broken.


Throughout the story, Mother’s love for Maggie is tested by Dee. Dee creates conflict with education, money, and heritage. She flaunts her education, parades around showing off money, and displays ignorance with no understanding of family history. Mother shows her love for Dee by going along with her while Maggie sits quietly, but Dee steps over the line when she tries to take the quilts. Mother’s love for Maggie shines, and for the first time in the story, Maggie smiles.





Please note that this sample paper on Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use" is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use", we are here to assist you. Your cheap college papers on Conflict Between Ways of Life in "Everyday Use" will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.

Order your authentic assignment from cheap custom writing service and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete a quality custom paper within the shortest time possible!