Hannah Nixon
Kozak 6
English 2
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, the theme for the story is to walk in someone’s shoes to find out where they’re coming from. Dee wants to take the things that have sentimental value to her family and show them off to show people where they came from. She feels like she needs these things but her family is confused as to why she does.
“These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all of the stitching by hand. Imagine!” Dee is an educated, wealthy person and needs these things to tell her past. But her family doesn’t think so, they don’t understand where she’s coming from.
Therefore, Dee is super snobby and uptight, but she does have a good reason to take these things. She knows what she wants and how she wants to show herself image. “Some of the pieces like the lavender ones came from old clothes her mother handed down to her.”
When Dee says she wants these pieces of clothing because she wants to tell her story. She feels that people don’t understand her. To "walk in someone else's shoes" means to know how that person feels or if someone says try walking in my shoes it means try being me for once and you'll know how I feel. Maggie and Mama could never know how Dee really feels about the whole situation unless they try it themselves and let her have the old items. Maybe Dee can bring them back or fix them up to be better and last longer.