List the characteristics of the three main characters in “Everyday Use” as they are revealed by thenarrator.

Maggie is the quiet, introverted younger sister to Dee.
The narrator, who is the mother, and Maggie are expecting a visit form Dee, the older
sister. Maggie has burn scars on her arms and legs. She survived a house fire ten or
twelve years back.

Maggie is slow in her walk; she sort of
shuffles of her feet. She has been this way since she was burned in the house
fire.

Dee is the older sister who is beginning to
appreciate her African heritage. She used to take so much for
granted.

Dee is sophisticated as she comes back home for a
visit. Her clothing is bright and her jewelry dangles. She has large sunshades which
cover her face. She has beautiful feet. Dee has "nicer hair and fuller figure" than
Maggie, according to the narrator.

Dee has changed her name
to a name of her African background. She desires the homemade quilts that the narrator
has preserved for Maggie. She sees the beauty in them that she once took for granted.
Dee is with a man who also has an African name.

The
narrator used to think Dee hated Maggie, but that was before they raised money to send
her to school in Augusta. Dee is the educated one who can read
well.

The narrator is a tougher than any man around. She
can kill a hog and milk a cow better than any man she knows. She is "a large, big-boned
woman with rough, man-working hands." She admits that she is fat but declares it keeps
her warm in cold weather. She can eat "pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes
after it comes steaming from the hog." She is a Southern country girl no doubt and proud
to be so.

The narrator imagines herself as 100 pounds
lighter if she were to appear on television show like Johnny Carson. She imagines her
skin is "like an uncooked barley pancake..." with "hair that glistens..." She adds that
this is the way Dee would want her to appear.

This
statement causes the reader to think the Dee is not proud of her mother the way she
really looks.

Dee seems high-minded and affluent when in
reality she is her mother's daughter, a Southern country girl, raised on a
farm.

These three women have similarities in that they are
all Southern country girls. Although Maggie is withdrawn, it is due to being burned in
the house fire.

Dee, on the other hand, is now
sophisticated...she appears interested in her African heritage. She visits her mother
for one purpose--to gather heirlooms for her home's
decoration.

When the narrator will not give Dee the quilts
she has promised Maggie, Dee is frustrated, exclaiming that Maggie will use them for
everyday use, thus explaining the story's title.

Maggie is
the winner for the first time in her life, and after her sister leaves, she smiles "a
real smile, not scared."