Everyday Wasteland

Alice Walker creates two extremely different characters in her short story Everyday Use: Dee/Wangero, the “cultured, intelligent, trendy” daughter, and her “poor, uneducated, rural” Mother. However, even though Dee was the smartest in school and received scholarships to college, it is Mother’s character that seems to be more sensible and more grounded. Walker adds humor to Mother’s character when she indirectly calls Dee out on her ridiclousness. For example, when Dee declares she has changed her name from the “oppressive” one she had, Mother tells her that she was actually just named after her aunt (30). Mother has a much more realistic outlook on life than Dee does and this is especially apparent when she and Dee are arguing about the quilts. Dee wants to hang them as decorations and Mother can’t seem to understand why anyone would do that (73). Coming from an extremely poor background, it can be assumed that Mother was someone who never used a quilt, or any kind of household object for that matter, as “art”. The way in which Mother conducts herself and her mannerisms really show us that “less is more” in that she is a more rational, pleasant, and overall more likeable person than Dee, despite that fact she lives much more modernly. You would assume that since Dee went to college and followed the current times, her behavior would mirror it. However, it does not. Dee comes off as silly and ridiculous, however it is not funny, but instead rude and disrespectful. When Walker describes Dee when she is younger, you come to learn that she was embarrassed by her heritage and who her family was. Yet, when family trees become the next big trend, she then decides to embrace it. Dee feels no emotional connection to her past; rather to her it is just another accessory. She embraces her heritage only when it is convenient for her.


In Teenage Wasteland, Anne Tyler shows us the emotional battle Daisy must face when trying to figure out a way to salvage her relationship with her troubled son Donny. When she first learns of her son’s problems in school Daisy is embarrassed and confused (4). Her confusion never fully leaves her throughout the rest of the story. Daisy can’t figure out why her son is behaving like this, and since he is her first child, she has no experience in dealing with it. I think this is one reason why Daisy is so willing at first to let Cal work with Donny, despite her instincts telling her otherwise (30). She is so lost in the situation that it seems Daisy will to listen to anybody with a PhD, even if they do more harm than good. Daisy is caught in a very tricky situation with Donny because no matter what she does, he will just rebel. Donny protests when his parents constantly monitor his schoolwork, but when his parents leave him alone, Donny doesn’t do any of his work. It is a lose-lose situation for Daisy, because she always comes off as the bad guy not only to Donny, but to her daughter Amanda as well. Daisy has to push her time with Amanda aside when she is attempting to help Donny (50). This severely damages Amanda’s relationship with her parents and she begins to gradually distance herself from them (113). I think that another thing that causes both Donny and Amanda to drift away from their parents is that neither of their parents set good examples. The father seems to be working most of the time, leaving Daisy by herself. Daisy’s overwhelming insecurities and lack of confidence do not create a good role model for her kids to look up to (10). Her obsession of what other people think of her affects her parenting and therefore causes her to feel twice as ashamed when Donny begins to struggle.

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