A Question of Value in Everyday UseFrom the fashionable and expensive clothes that the character Dee wears in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, the girl almost immediately seems like a person of great value and importance. It may also seem, at first glance, that Dee's mother and sister Maggie, with their tin-roofed house and shabby clothes, have little or no value in "Everyday Use." The story ironically shows, upon reflection, that the outward characteristics that deem Dee the most valuable character are those that demonstrate that her mother and Maggie have the most powerful internal value. At the beginning of the story, Dee is portrayed as being more physically valuable than her mother and Maggie. Dee's clothing reeks of a money-based society, very different from that of her heritage. Dee wears "A dress down to the floor... There are enough yellows and oranges to repel the sunlight. Even earrings, gold, that hang down to her shoulders" (Walker 1151). Dee's mother also reflects on her eldest daughter's full figure and beautiful hair (1150). The mother and Maggie, however, are given an air of simplicity and unattractiveness. The mother is described as a large, bony worker, whose usual clothing consists of overalls and flannel nightgowns. Maggie, called a "lame animal", is thin and shabbily dressed (1150). From Dee's vivid description and the rather bland descriptions of her mother and Maggie, one can easily assume that Dee has a much higher extrinsic value than her family members. Despite Dee's outward attractiveness and her mother and Maggie's unattractiveness, the differences in the groups' behavior indicate a reversal in the characters' supposed value judgments... middle of the paper... too. The first glimpse of "Everyday Use" might suggest that Dee surpasses her mother and sister in value, but a closer examination of the work reveals that the mother and Maggie have as much, if not more, merit than Dee.Works CitedWalker, Alice. "Daily use." The Harper Fiction Anthology. Ed. Silvano Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1149.Baker, Houston A., Jr. and Pierce-Baker, Charlotte. Criticism of short stories. Ed. Tommaso Votteler. vol. 5. Gale Research Inc.: Detroit, MI, 1990. 402.Mickelson, Anne Z. Short Story Criticism. Ed. Tommaso Votteler. vol. 5. Gale Research Inc.: Detroit, MI, 1990. 406. Works consulted Matriz, Roger, ed. Contemporary literary criticism. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., vol. 5, 6, 9, 19, 27. 1991.Draper, James P., ed. Criticism of black literature. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Inc., vol. 3. 1992.