Describe Dee and Maggie in "Everyday Use."

Maggie and Dee are two sisters born to the same mother but
circumstances have resulted in a complete contrast between the two. The differences in
their personalities is brought to a sharp focus in their different attitudes to the
quilts. Maggie more than Dee would value and permanently treasure the quilts for the
following reasons:

1. The quilts have always proved to be a
source of comfort and encouragement to Maggie who is described by the mother as "homely
and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, [who is always] eying her sister
with a mixture of envy and awe." and a little later as, "she has been like this, chin on
chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house
to the ground." So a girl like Maggie who is timid and not successful in life like her
sister will have great regard for the tradition and the culture of her
past.

2. Maggie's roots are deeply and firmly planted in
the cultural soil of her family's traditions, unlike Dee who was always ashamed of and
hated her rural traditions and upbringing:"she had hated the
house that much."Dee was more literate and would constantly
read to them about life which the mother and Maggie were not interested in at all : "she
washed us in a river of make believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't
necessarily need to know." So, certainly Maggie more than Dee will set more value on
the  family quilts.

2. Maggie, unlike Dee
never "wanted nice things." The quilts
would be old and faded and were certainly not "nice" to look at and Dee would not
consider them valuable because they were not attractive to look at. Maggie on the other
hand would consider them precious and worth preserving for
life.

3. Most importantly Dee has changed her name into the
African Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, because her old name "Dee" reminded her of her white
colonial masters. Outwardly her reason for changing her name might be politically
correct but its certainly not culturally correct.  Her entire past is negated because of
this name change. Dee's mother traces the family history of that name saying, "though,
in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the
branches." Maggie on the other hand would treasure the quilt not as a mere showpiece but
as a treasure trove of the collected memories - both painful and pleasant - of the
cultural past of her ancestors.