Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Maggie is Mama's skittish younger daughter. Maggie was scarred in a house fire as a child, and is self-conscious about her burns. She has always shuffled around in the shadows of her garish big sister, Dee. Living and working with her mother on the farm, Maggie is a deferential and innocent young woman who has yet to come into her own.

Dee’s persona is loud, garish, and judgmental. She operates under the guise of “Black Pride” and a return to pre-slavery identity that was popular with many black college students in the 1960’s. Dee’s colorful attire and insistence she be called "Wangero" seems forced and without nuance. Her appreciation of "everyday" objects like the butter churn or quilts lies not in their practical usage, but in the heritage she seeks to reclaim as an artifact rather than a way of life.