A Sense of Belonging
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A Sense of Belonging Alice Walker’s Everyday Use was about a woman who raised two daughters on a farm in the rural south during the late 1960s or early 1970s. Even though they were very poor, the eldest daughter, Dee, was able to go away to college. She was educated and very worldly. The younger sister, Maggie, stayed at home with Mama and could barely read. Although Mama and Maggie felt they belonged on the farm, Dee felt she belonged in the city, and couldn’t understand why Mama and Maggie didn’t feel the same way. Mama felt comfortable living on the farm. While waiting in the yard for Dee to arrive for a visit, she said, “a yard like this is more comfortable than most people know” (Walker, 2011, p. 283). Mama knew the yard would be a suitable place to wait. She said “the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house” (Walker, 2011, p. 283). Mama was a very practical person and content with her lot in life. She accepted the fact that she didn’t possess the skills that women typically possessed. She couldn’t sing like the other ladies in church, but she spoke proudly of her rough, “man-working hands” (Walker, 2011, p. 283). Mama was a large, big-boned, strong woman. She could slaughter animals and work hard all day just like a man. She even dressed in overalls like a man. She was a strong and independent woman, but Mama also had a softer side. When Dee began wrapping up the dasher from the churn, Mama held it in her hands for a moment. She noticed all the marks on the handle that were made from hands pushing the dasher up and down while making butter. She remembered that the beautiful light yellow wood came from a tree that grew in her sister’s yard. A simple thing like a butter churn was an item she could relate to. It also held fond memories of her family and the life she had lived, and would continue to live, on the farm. The farm was her home and the place she felt she belonged. Maggie also felt comfortable living on the farm. She really didn’t know anything else. Mama said that Maggie would be nervous until after her sister left. When her sister came to visit, she ran to hide. Maggie looked at Dee as if she were something to fear. Dee was the opposite of Maggie. Dee was a beautiful, educated, confident, worldly, and independent woman. Maggie was shy, uneducated, homely, and had no confidence. Maggie had burn marks on her hands and legs from the fire that burned down their first house. She was so ashamed of her burn scars that she tried to hide them by placing her hands in the folds of her skirt. Maggie looked at Dee with mixed emotions. On one hand, she was envious of Dee. Dee seemed to get everything she wanted. Maggie saw her sister as one that “held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her” (Walker, 2011, p. 283). On the other hand, Maggie was in awe of the woman Dee had become. But Maggie resigned herself to marry John Thomas and continue to live a simple life on a farm. That’s where she belonged. She wasn’t strong and independent enough to support herself on a farm like her Mama, so having a man to take care of her must have been comforting to her. She could live her life as she always did. Only with a man instead of with Mama. Dee never felt she belonged on the farm. When the original house burnt down, she was glad. While Mama and Maggie were watching the house burn with wide-eyed horror, Dee was standing off by a sweet gum tree staring at the house with contempt, while the last board fell into the chimney. She was glad it was gone. Dee hated the house so much that Mama said she wanted to ask her “Why don’t you do a dance around the ashes?” (Walker, 2011, p. 283). Dee loves her family, but is a selfish, demanding, and egotistical. She says to her Mama that no matter where Mama chooses to live, she will manage to come see them (Walker, 2011, p. 283). Dee would read to Mama and Maggie, but read to them in a very condescending way. Mama said that Dee would “read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two” (Walker, 2011, p. 283). Mama and Maggie didn’t understand most of what Dee was reading to them. And just when they began to understand what Dee was reading, she would cut them off, making them feel like idiots. Oh, but Dee thoroughly enjoyed eating the chitlins, corn bread, greens, and sweet potatoes that were prepared at Mama’s house! She admired the benches her daddy had made, as well as her Grandmother’s butter dish, along with the churn and quilts her Mama possessed. But it was obvious that Dee didn’t want to be associated with Mama and Maggie’s lifestyle when she asked if Uncle Buddy whittle the churn top. She asked if it was whittled out of a tree you all used to have (Walker, 2011, p. 283). She says this as if she never lived there. Perhaps Dee wanted to forget she ever did? Dee said she wanted to ask Mama for something, but never really asked. She just took the churn top and dasher. Mama used the churn to make butter, but Dee selfishly took them to use as decorations. Mama let her have the churn top and dasher, but finally put her foot down when Dee demanded the quilts promised to Maggie. How interesting that Dee wanted these items. Items that would remind her of the home she hated and the life she never wanted. Mama knew these things belonged with her and Maggie. Mama and Maggie had a sense of belonging on the farm. That is where they were comfortable. That is where they were content to stay for the remainder of their lives. Dee never had a sense of belonging on the farm. Dee desired nice things, worldly things, and an education. Things she could never have while living on the farm. She tried to encourage her sister Maggie to leave the farm. Dee “turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, “You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it” (Walker, 2011, p. 283). Dee was in her car ready to leave when Maggie smiled for the first time in the story. After Dee leaves, Mama and Maggie sat on the porch as they enjoyed a bit of snuff. That’s what made them happy. That’s where they had a sense of belonging. Dee had a sense of belonging in her new world. A world filled with excitement…a world far away from the farm.

Reference
Walker, A. (2011). Everyday use. In D.L. Pike and A.M. Acosta (Eds.) Literature:A world of writing stories, poems, plays, and essays. [VitalSource Digital Version] (p. 283). Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.