Drown Compare & Contrast

In this Paper I will compare and contrast the some of the relationships in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, to Drown by Junot Diaz.

Dee and maggie are sister in "Everyday Use". Dee is outgoing and ambitious, Maggie is shy and lazy. Maggie envies Dee, but also fears her. They act more like co-workers than siblings. In the story they don't appear to interact with each other often, which makes it difficult to develop a relationship.From the story it doesn't illustrate them ever having a close connection probably due to Maggie's shyness and envy. Alice Walker writes "Maggie will be be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word never learned to say to her." Dee(Wangero) is the most dominant one out of the two, which is no surprise since she tries take the quilts from Dee (Wangero). I found it I found it odd that she wanted those quilts because of her heritage, when she completely disgraced her heritage when she traded her own name in for Wangero. Alice writes :

"You know as well as me yhou was named after you aunt Dicie." I said.

Dicie is my sister, She name Dee. We called her "Big Dee" after Dee was born.

"But who was she named after?" asked Wangero.

"I guess agter Grandma Dee," I said.

"And who was she name after?" asked Wangero.

"Her mother," I said, and saw Wangero was getting tired. "That's about as

far back as I can trace it," I said. Though, in fact, I probably could have carried it

back beyond the civil war through the branches.

Her name had been passed down from generation to generation before Dee received it. Obviously the name had great importance in her family. Her mother could trace the name back to the civil war and connect it with specific people in her family. Alice Walker write's "you just don't understand," she said , as Maggie and I came out to the car. "what don't I understand?" I wanted to know. "Your