Alice Walkers Sisters
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Alice Walker's Sisters
At first glance, the lighthearted story "Everyday Use" and the dramatic movie The Color Purple seem to have only one thing in commontheir author, Alice Walker. In "Everyday Use," a black woman and her daughter Maggie suffer through a visit from her citified daughter Dee, who wants their quilts to display as artwork. In Stephen Spielberg's 1982 film version of Walker's The Color Purple, poor Celie suffers through incest, rape, losing her children, and a bad marriage before she finally wins friends and rediscovers her familyincluding her long-lost sister, Nettie. It is in the characters of the sisters that we see surprising similarity. THE SISTERS IN "EVERYDAY USE" HAVE A LOT IN COMMON WITH THE SISTERS IN THE COLOR PURPLE.
ONE SIMILARITY BETWEEN THESE TWO SETS OF SISTERS IS THAT WHILE MAGGIE AND CELIE ARE PLAIN AND SHY, DEE AND NETTIE ARE BEAUTIFUL AND OUTGOING. MAGGIE AND CELIE ARE BOTH QUIET, SHY, AND ALMOST UGLY. Maggie, in "Everyday Use," is described as "homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs" (280). Her mother says that "good lookspassed her by" (282). This is in part why poor Maggie is equally shy...