For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. So we can pretty much count on one hand the things we know about Hakim-a-barber: he has a lot of hair, he's Arab or Muslim, and he might be married to Dee.
Other than that though, he only has a few lines and since this story is written in first person, his thoughts are totally off-limits to us. The truth is that we just don't know enough about him to make much of a judgment about who he is. But we're not off the hook with this mystery man yet.
It turns out that Hakim-a-barber serves a really important function in the story—in fact, his presence manages to tell us a little something about each of our other characters. Minor characters can be cool like that.
Hakim-a-barber's first real interaction is with Maggie, as he tries unsuccessfully to give her a bear hug and then attempts to do some secret handshake with her. Maggie is really shaken by him; the poor girl breaks out into a cold sweat, as the narrator notices the "perspiration falling off her chin. It also shows how desperately she needs the intervention that takes place in the end to perhaps boost her confidence enough so that she can actually begin to interact with other people and assert herself as someone worthy of respect.
In Dee's character analysis we talk about how her sudden surge of racial pride seems kind of specious. Along that line, we might also question her motivations for bringing Hakim-a-Barber home. It's relevant to point out here that some black Americans in the Black Power movement like Malcolm X embraced Islam as an alternative to Christianity.
Alice Walker and Everyday Use Background. Characters Character List. Mama The narrator of the story. Read an in-depth analysis of Mama. Maggie The shy, retiring daughter who lives with Mama.
Read an in-depth analysis of Maggie. Read an in-depth analysis of Dee. Next section Mama. Popular pages: Everyday Use. Thus, Dee denies her real heritage, in which she was named for her aunt.
Burned severely in a house fire as a child, the shy, stammering Maggie Johnson cowers in the overwhelming presence of her sister. Johnson is the narrator of this story, overseeing its events and interpreting, more through her actions than her words, their significance.
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