Skin Deep

According to Webster’s Dictionary, there are two viable definitions of the noun “scar:” “a mark left (as in the skin) by the healing of injured tissue” and “a lasting moral or emotional injury”. By both of these definitions, Maggie, the youngest daughter in Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use, is significantly affected.
The most obvious and exterior example of scaring is evident upon Maggie in the physical form. She is the only character who is noticeably disfigured by the house fire that blemished her body years before Dee’s metamorphosis into Wangero. However, the scars serve not only as an insight to the external injury, but also as an intangible parallel to the marred inner turmoil Maggie has lived with ever since the fire. Through the imagery-filled description of her damaged daughter, the narrator allows the reader to effectively view the impact of the injuries suffered by Maggie in both a physical and emotional context, “Have you ever seen a lame animal…sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground. (9)” This ruined depiction of Maggie is emphasized even more when the narrator then goes on to compare her to the pristine physicality emanating from Dee in the next line, “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. (10)” Thus proving that the bodily scarring left over by the fire manifests itself onto Maggie’s physical being just as it does to her emotional frame of mind.
However, as evidenced almost immediately in the story, the source of Maggie’s scarring is not only the fire, nor does its effect remain external. In fact, the notion that Maggie is both physically and emotionally scarred unveils itself in the first few lines of the second paragraph “Maggie will 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.” and to fully emphasize the source of Maggie’s scarred level of emotional security and self-worth, Walker reveals that “She [Maggie] thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word never learned to say to her.(2)” This passage paints the picture of a girl marred in several ways, as it lends focus to Maggie’s internal scarring caused by feelings of inferiority towards her sister and lack of confidence within herself.
Another prime example of Maggie’s heightened levels of decreased self worth in comparison with her sister displays itself later on in the text, after Wangero (formally Dee) has returned to her home. As soon as Wangero makes the confident demand for the hand-sewn quilts promised to Maggie, Maggie recognizes her place and backs down, allowing Wangero to receive the gifts instead “Like somebody used to never winning anything or having anything reserved for her.(74)” However, perhaps the most significant moment in this passage is visible within the body language exhibited by Maggie. As she willingly relinquishes her property, Maggie “stood there with her scarred hands hidden in the folds of her skirt. (75)”, thus illustrating her lack of confidence and self-assurance even in the face of her own kind and bloodline. (571)