"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

This is a short story that tells the story about a mother and her two daughters. One is very humble, nice and shy. The other one is proud, vain and at least, physically nicer. One day, Dee, the vain daughter goes to visit her mother and sister. She had changed her name to Wangero. She asked to have the old quilts that Maggie owned, to exhibit them. The sister would say yes, but the mother would feel it was Maggie's right to keep them. In the end, Wangero (Dee) did not keep them and said good-bye to them. 

I came to know today that the reason African-Americans changed their names from the "European" ones they had, was to recover their roots and feel more proud about them. I believe Wangero, even though she seems to be the evil one in the story, has arrived to the new world of freedom for this people. The African-americans now had rights, she would be receiving College education and the freedom to travel. Besides that, she was a woman, and women rights were also beginnig. So at the new freedom that she found in front of her eyes, she could not feel anything but pride of her roots and the success they had achieved. "She would look anyone in the eye", she would not feel less in front of white people, she would stand and be proud of who she was. 

On the other side, yes, she had a problem with leaving simple stuff as it was, and not stopping herself from wanting to own everything. She was already free, but she did not realise she had some responsibilities, for example, to make her shy sister proud of who she was. Maybe Wangero just wanted her to realise it, or maybe she just found her stupid for acting like that and expected her to already be proud. But that would not happen. I think Wangero has a point where she says "It's a new day for us. But from the way you and mamma still live, you'd never know it." Of course I believe that was a good advice, in the sense of being free as African-americans. But then again, she could not difference between social comfort and family and personal comfort. Maggie and her mom already had the family comfort. Maggie may have needed more self-esteem, but she had a simple, happy life beside her mother. She was happy, she was going to get married, and she did not complain about things. She was comfortable with life and really did not expect to have a life like her sister's. Maybe she envied her body, as she was burnt, but in soul, she was simple. And this we can see with the quilts she makes. She thinks family is important, and personal heritage is too. Wangero thought it had to be for the world, to show the traditions of the people. 

So I do not think that Wangero was a diva or a mean girl, she just saw things from another point of view, and both sisters and her mother, just for being human beings, were not perfect.