Alice Walker uses her story "Everyday Use" to show her readers the liberation that can be found when you find happiness within yourself. This happiness can be found when you do not let other interpretations of your lifestyle effect the way you perceive yourself. Alice Walker uses three main characters, Dee, Maggie and Mama to play an integral part in which ultimately designed the theme. The liberation occurs when the conflict comes to a head between the three main characters over the quilts.
             Dee is a character who has always seemed to get what she wanted out of life. "... her sister always held life in the palm of her hand, that "no" is a word that the world never learned to say to her ("Everyday Use 180). She is an educated individual, who enjoys the finer things in life. The text indicates this when mama describes Dee's attire on the day she came to visit. "A dress so loud it hurts my eyes...Earrings gold, too and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises..." (182). With Dee's lavish lifestyle she looked down on the way that mama and Maggie lived. She indicated this when she wrote "No matter where we "choose" to live, she will manage to come she us. But she will never bring her friends" (181). By not wanting to bring her friends to the house reminds the readers that to some extent she is ashamed of where she came from.
             Mama was a very different person than Dee. Mama was the narrator of the story. Mama was a big woman, that lacked self-esteem. She found herself doing better at what is perceived as man work. "In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-like hands." (180). Mama was uneducated. She had stopped going to school after she completed the second grade. This is different than Dee, in that Dee was the educated
             member of the family, eventually leaving and going away to colleg...