Maggie Gets Her Way
Maggie Gets Her Way
When I looked at her like that, something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the solos of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout. I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat there on my bed with her mouth open. "That one or two of the others," I said to Dee. But she turned without a word and went out to Hakim-a-baber. "You just don't understand," she said, as Maggie and I came out to the car. "What don't I understand ?." I want to know. "Your heritage," she said. And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, "You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it." She put on some sunglasses that hid everything above the tip of her nose and her chin. Maggie smiled; maybe at the sunglasses. But a real smile, not scared. After we watched the car dust settle I asked Maggie to bring me a dip of snuff. And then the two of us sat there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed. (Paragraph 75-80 pp. 94-95)
The passage that I chose from Alice Walkers ¡°Everyday Use¡±, comes from the end of the story and is the last couple of paragraphs. The passage is the turning point in the story; the mother starts to see Dee for what she really is. The passage shows that Walker is very good with words, also you see how the Mother in the story which also is the narrator, realizes how much she loves her younger daughter Maggie. The Mother says, "When I looked at her like that, something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the solos of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout. I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me". The next sentence shows how the...