Describe the major conflict in "Everyday Use" and why it occurred.

The major conflict of "Everyday Use" is between Mama and her daughter, Dee (Wangero).  There seems always to have been an antagonism between Dee and Mama and her other daughter, Maggie.  Mama describes the young Dee as having "burned [them] with a lot of knowledge [they] didn't necessarily need to know."  She made them feel like "dimwits."  Mama says that, when Dee was a teenager, "[she often] fought off the temptation to shake her."  Mama...

The major conflict of "Everyday Use" is between Mama and her daughter, Dee (Wangero).  There seems always to have been an antagonism between Dee and Mama and her other daughter, Maggie.  Mama describes the young Dee as having "burned [them] with a lot of knowledge [they] didn't necessarily need to know."  She made them feel like "dimwits."  Mama says that, when Dee was a teenager, "[she often] fought off the temptation to shake her."  Mama has always felt and still feels somewhat at odds with Dee, and it seems that they've been somewhat estranged for a while because of Dee's embarrassment about her roots.  She wrote her mother a letter once saying that, "no matter where [they] 'choose' to live," she would visit but she'd never bring friends.  Mama has dreamed of being reunited on a talk show, a scenario where Dee confesses that she owes her success to her mother. 

Now, Dee has returned to her home, an adult, and she seems to have acquired a new appreciation for their things, but it is a shallow appreciation.  She wants the butter churn top and dasher -- items that her mother and sister still use -- because they were handmade, but she doesn't care that she's taking things they still use in order to do something "artistic" with them.  In the end, she becomes interested in some old quilts that she'd formerly rejected because they, too, are handmade.  But she doesn't want to use them; she wants to display them.  It's as though she's only interested in her roots now because she wants to show them off.  Mama offers her some newer quilts because these older ones have been promised to Maggie, but Dee becomes belligerent and possessive.  When Mama sees the way Maggie gives in to Dee, something happens to her.  She says,

When I looked at [Maggie] like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles 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 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.

It's as though she suddenly recognizes Dee's selfishness and shallow motives compared to Maggie's quiet devotion to family, and Mama refuses to allow Dee to continue to "burn" them any more.  The conflict comes to a head from the juxtaposition of the characters' motives for wanting various items: Mama and Maggie need these objects because they put them to "Everyday Use" and Dee in only interested in them so that she can show them off and put them on display.  Mama and Maggie honor their family and heritage in the way that feels most genuine and sincere; Dee is only interested in show.