1
ALICE WALKER
“EVERYDAY USE”
1. STRUCTURE: “Everyday Use” is divided into three parts:
(a) Beginning: The mother’s thoughts as she and her younger daughter ______anxiously await a late-afternoon visit by her older daughter _____. (paragraph 1-16).
(b) Middle: The arrival of this daughter, who brings a ______companion; after dinner, the mother makes a controversial decision about a family heirloom, two ______. (par. 17-77)
(c) End: Upset by the decision, ______,with her companion in tow, abruptly leaves. The story closes as it opened, with the mother and ______sitting in the yard, now filled with enjoyment, not anxiety. (par. 78-83)
(d) By examining in detail what Alice ______does in these three parts of “Everyday Use,” you will be able to apply this structural pattern to other short stories which we may study.
2. The BEGINNING of a story typically establishes the setting (place and time), introduces the main characters, and presents the problem with which the story will deal.
(a) Place and time: “Everyday Use” opens in a farmhouse setting, probably in ______(given the reference in paragraph 11 to this state’s third largest city Augusta), during the early 1970s. (The story was published in 1973.)
This was a period whenAfrican-based hairstyles (par. 19), ______(par. 20), and ______(par. 24-27)began to be adopted by some African Americans.
The reference to a ____ show (par. 3), which was revived with much fanfare in 1970, points to that year as the specific time of “Everyday Use.”
(b) Characters: The narrator of the story is a mother. Through her ruminations we learn that her ______daughter Dee, who lives a distance from her, is paying a rare ______to her that afternoon.
The name of the mother is Mrs. ______. (par. 6)
Her first name is never mentioned.
We also learn that her ______daughter Maggielives with her.
3. Briefly characterize the three women.
(a)Mrs. Johnson, the mother, is a ______.
(1) Herdeceased husband is strangely mentioned inonly one sentence and then in reference to their children: Their “______” made “the benches . . . for the______when we couldn’t afford to buy ______.” (par. 45)
He seems not to have been present at the time of the most traumatic episode which faced the family, the burning down of their first house, ten or “______years” before the present action of the story. (par. 10)
(2) Mrs. Johnson is probably around fifty, likely born in 1920 since paragraph 13 establishes that she was in the ______grade in 1927, her last year of formal education.
(3) She is a hefty, strong woman, who prides herself in being able to do a man’s work: “I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a ______” (par. 5) and “I was always ______at a man’s _____” (par. 13).
(4) However, both she and her stay-at-home daughter seem cowed by the thought of the older daughter, who had left their farm, got a college education, and afterward had“______it” (par. 3), that is, become a success, so much so that Mrs. Johnson fantasizes that an episode of a popular ______program is devoted to her achievements. (par. 3-5)
Note: Johnny Carson: This TV entertainer began hosting “The Tonight Show” in 1962. It did not become a success until the late 1960s, but by the 1970s Carson had become an American icon, remaining as such until his 1992 retirement.
There was another TV entertainer, Ralph Edwards, who hosted a show, “This is Your Life” (1952-61 and 1971-72). This program surprised a guest and took the person through his/her life in front of a live audience. Colleagues, friends, and family were brought on the stage to praise or be praised by the person being honored, as in Mrs. Johnson’s dream.
(b) Dee, who was always bright as a child, seems forgetful that it was through the “______” raised by her mother and their “______” which allowed her to attend college. (par. 11)
(1) Her urban education hasfurther alienated her from her ______, although this estrangement manifested itself earlier: Even “at sixteen,” the older daughter “had a ______of her own” (par. 12), the mother states, radically different from the rural-based outlook of her mother and sister.
(2) Dee’s _____ is never given although she is probably in her mid-twenties, far enough removed from her ______graduation to have achieved the success about which her mother fantasizes.
(3) Her field of success is never specified although the elaborate lining up of shots in the ______camera scene (par. 22),her planned “______” positioning of the “dasher” of the butter churn (par. 53), and her envisioned ______of the quilts as if they are paintings (par. 72) suggest that she is an artist.
(4) Even at a distance, Dee seems to dominate her mother: In her television dream Mrs. Johnson proudly sees herself as “the way [Dee] would ______me to be”: slimmer, less dark in color, and with a “______and ______tongue.” (par. 5)
Both Mrs. Johnson and Maggie believe Dee is ashamed of her rural background and of her uneducated family members because“she will never bring her ______” from the city (par. 14) to meet them.
(c) Maggie, the younger daughter, views Dee with “envy and _____” and accepts that “‘_____’ is a word the world [including Maggie herself] never learned to say to her.” (par. 2)
(1) Maggie’s age is also not specified. Her mother says that she is “a ______now, though sometimes I forget” (par 10), that is, she still views her as a child even though Maggie is ______and will soon be in charge of her own house (par. 13). These details suggest that she is probably around twenty, about ______years younger than Dee.
(2) Maggie’s “arms and ______”had been scarred (par. 2)—and perhaps her ______damaged (par. 13)—when the family’s house had burned down. Maggie would have been fromeight to ten years old then.
(3) Without “good ______,” money, and intelligence (“not ______”), Maggie does have a “______” nature and is engaged to the “______,”but unattractive, John ______. (par. 13)
4. The INCITING MOMENT of a story is that point when the problem of the story is presented. It closes out the beginning section of a story.
What is the inciting moment of “Everyday Use”?
(a) Once the reader knows the nature of the relationship—where the older sister _____dominates both her mother and younger sister and where she feels ______of her rural background—there develops an interest in what will happen during this visit.
(b) Thus the inciting moment is the intimidation and foreboding which the reader (and both Mrs. Johnson and Maggie) feel about what should be a ______occasion—the ______of a family member, who is both a daughter and a sister.
(c) At this point the reader typically asks two questions:
Why has Dee come to visit her______?
As before, will Dee try to ______her mother and sister, cowing them into letting her get her way, or has she come for a true reunion and reconciliation?
5. MIDDLE: The middle of a story develops the characters and the problem. The middle closes with the climax (the high point of a story), where the problem is resolved and the questions asked at the inciting moment are answered.
In “Everyday Use,” how does her mother’s reaction to Dee’s dress, to the Polaroid pictures,Dee’s new name, and her companion suggest that the gulf between mother and daughter has widened?
Which character is domineering and which one, though upset, shows tolerance?
(a) Dee’s dress: Dee sets herself off from her family by dressing in a radical different style from the clothes of her mother and sister, that of a woman from Africa: A flowing robe in bright “______and oranges” which is“so ______” it initially “hurts” her mother’s “____.” (par. 20)
However, on seeing how “______” it hangs, which keeps the garment from being hot, the practical Mrs. Johnson changes her judgment and says to herself, “I ______it.” (par. 20)
Thus Dee’s robe and its accessories only momentarily cause a breach between Mrs. Johnson and her daughter.
(b) The Polaroid pictures: What does Dee do before she reaches down to kiss her mother? Describe the kiss.
(1) Dee approaches her mother, but she greets her with an African expression which, of course, makes no ______to Mrs. Johnson.
(2) Most daughters who have been separated for a time from their mother would rush to embrace her parent. However, Dee hurries back to the carto retrieve a Polaroid camera.
She begins to snap “______after ______,”but “never takes a ______without making sure that the ______is included” (par. 22), as if these images and the house are more important than her flesh-and-blood ______. Her actions hint at (foreshadow) why she has come home.
(3) It is only after this photo sessionthat she “______” her mother “on the ______” (par 22), a rather curt cold greeting—nothing like Mrs. Johnson’s TV dream where Dee was“______me with ______in her eyes” (par. 4).
This kiss encapsulates the apathy that Dee feels toward her parent.
(At the close of the story, in paragraph 81, with similar mechanical indifference Dee will kiss her sister Maggie.)
Vocabulary notes: “Wa-su-zo Tean-o!” (par. 21): A “good morning” greeting used by a tribe in east African Uganda.
Its literal translation is “I hope that you slept well.”
“Asalamalakim” (par. 21): The accepted transcription of the Arabic phrase in English is “as-salamu alaykum,” a greeting among Muslims meaning “Peace be upon you!”—”salam” being the Arabic word for “peace.”
Dee’s male companion Hakim mispronounces the fourth and the last syllables of the greeting, an indication of his lack of mastery of the religion Islam to which he says he is in the process of converting.
(c) Dee’s new name: Dee announces that she has taken a new African-based name ______Leewanika ______and adds that the woman called Dee is “______.” (par. 25 and 27).
(1) She justifies the change by saying that “I couldn’t bear . . . being ______after the people who ______me.” (par. 27)
(2) Mrs. Johnson counters that the passing down of the name Dee—which dates from before the ______War (par. 32)—says more about the survival of their family than about a stigma imposed on them by their slave masters and oppressors.
As such it is more a part of her family’s ______than Dee’s adopted African name.
(3) However, again Mrs. Johnson seems tolerant. After her older daughter insists that she did not want to be called Dee (par. 25), her mother begins mentally to think of her as ______(par. 29, 31-32, 36) and after practice even pronounces it correctly (par. 37-42).
(4) Thereafter in her thoughts sometimes Mrs. Johnson uses both names: “Wangero (______)” in paragraph 44 and “Dee (______)in paragraphs 50, 53, 55, 62, 67, and 70.
As if she is wrestling with her older daughter’s identity, she further uses “Wangero” (par. 45, 55, 56, 59)and its mockingly formal equivalent “______Wangero” (par. 76).
(5) Significantly, however, after the victory over her domineering daughter, her final thought of her is as “______.” (par. 77)
(d) Dee’s companion Hakimis a “short, ______man”(par. 19), presumably Dee’s age. Mrs. Johnson takes an immediate dislike of himbecause of his Afro hairstyle—“______is all over his head a ______long”—and his unkempt beard. (par. 19)
(1) However, what probably most upsets her is that neither he nor Dee announced whether they were “______.” (par. 44)
However, Hakim seems to hint that they are by addressing Mrs. Johnson and Maggie as “my ______and sister” (par. 21).
(2) He is studying to become a Muslim, saying “I accept some of their [Islamic] ______”(par. 44),and has adopted an Arabic/Swahiliname used in both Muslim and African societies.
Mrs. Johnson comically mishears his name Hakim al Barbaras “Hakim-a- ______.” (par. 42)
Etymology: In Arabic and Swahilithe name Hakim means “a religious ruler or leader.” “Barbar,” whose etymon (earliest form) is the Latin wordmeaning “foreigner” or “barbarian,” was borrowed by Arabic to designate the indigenous people of parts of northern Africa, now called Berbers.
(3) Hakim follows Muslim practice by refusing to eat ______and even collards which may contain a pork byproduct. (par. 45)
That ______gorges on both indicates that she is not applying herself to become a Muslim.
(4) Hakim’s taking of Maggie’s ______(par. 21 and 23) is certainly not flirting as Mrs. Johnson and most critics of the story believe, but simply an attempt to introduce his “sister” to a Black Power “______” (Mrs. Johnson’s word, par. 23)soulful handshake.
This Black Power greeting, according to Wikipedia,consists of “getting and giving much skin” (of the knuckles, fingertips, fist, palms, etc.) and is designed in its ritualistic complexity to be the oppositeof the simple handshake of whites.
(5) Mrs. Johnson scarcely hides her contempt for Hakim, who incidentally had greeted herand Maggie with affection.
Her animosity perhaps occasions him to send “eye ______” to Dee that her mother is “a Model A _____” (par. 36), a hopeless relic from the past.
Hakim’s presence thus accentuates the gap between Mrs. Johnson and ______.
Vocabulary: “chitlins” (par. 45): a variant of “chitterlings,” a deep-fried meat made from the small intestines of pigs.
“Model A”: A model of a car built by the Ford Motor Company from 1927-1931.
6. After the four characters have eaten supper, the selfish reason behind Dee’s visit becomes apparent.
Why has she returned?
(a) Her dress, her new ______, and her companion indicate that Dee and probably her friends in the city have become involved in a new project— searching out their roots or their “______” (par. 81)—which had become chic in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
(b) Dee has returned to scavengeforsome mementos of her ______past. She may be ashamed of her ______family, but not of its home-crafted antique items, such as a part of the ______churn, which, Dee says, can be used “as a ______for [her and perhaps Hakim’s] alcove table.” (par.53)
Vocabulary: “dasher” (par. 49): A device with blades used to churn butter.
“alcove”: a recessed section of a room, as a breakfast nook.
(c) More specifically Dee has come for “two” “old ______.” After supper she had purposively walked to a “______” in the bedroom of the shack, dug the quilts out and as“______as a bird” asked for them. (par. 55 and 56)
(1) The quilts had been made from scraps of garments worn by Johnson ______members. The oldest piece was from the “______” Union uniform that Mrs. Johnson’s ______grandfather Ezra had worn during the CivilWar. (par. 55)
(2) Her grandmother had pinned the pieces together, establishing the basic pattern of each quilt—Lone ______and Walk Around the ______.
(3) However, it was Mrs. Johnson and her sister_____ Dee who had hung them on “quilt ______” and sewn the pieces together, making the top layer of each quilt. (par. 55)
Not mentioned but understood: The sisters would have also made the neutral- hued lower layer and the batting middle sectionprior to sewing the three layers together.
Vocabulary: A Lone Star quilt uses an eight-pointed star as its motif.
The Walk Around the Mountain quilt is mentioned only in Walker’s story. She may be engaging in wordplay on the Walk Around the Block quilt which has a triangle design.
(d) Years earlier when Dee was going off to ______, her mother had tried to get her to take one of the quilts, but Dee had scorned them as being “_____- ______, out of ______.” (par. 67)
Mrs. Johnson had then promised them to ______to use when she got ______. (par. 64)
(e) When told of this decision, Dee protests that Maggie could not appreciate the heritage involved in these quilts: “She’d probably be ______enough to put them to ______” (par. 66), the expression which gives the story its title.
(f) Her mother replies that such practical use is what the quilts need and adds that packed away in the trunk, awaiting Maggie’s marriage, they had gone “long enough with nobody ______” them. (par. 67)
(g) Dee argues that she will preserve the quilts by ______them on the wall of a room in her house. Implied is that they will become “______” conversation pieces (par. 68) for her upscale friends to admire.
When Dee protests that the antique quilts will be destroyed by everyday use—“in five years they’d be ______” (par. 68)—her mother answers that since “Maggie ______how to quilt,” she can more some more (par. 69), presumably using some of the salvageable pieces of the old quilts.
(h) Maggie, who has been listening to the conversation, tells her mother to let Dee have them, adding “I can remember ______Dee without the ______.” (par. 74)
Maggie’s speech puts pressure on her mother to make thedecision that Dee has previouslydecreed: The quilts “already ______to her.” (par. 62)
(i) Mrs. Johnson had already accommodated her domineering older daughter concerning her dress, the photographs, her new name, and the parts of the butter churn because she seemed to accept that “‘no’ is a word the ______never ______to say to Dee” (par. 2).
Will this chain of acquiescence continue with the ______? the reader wonders.
7. The CLIMAX of a story is its turning point, the scene where a decision is made, an action performed, or a recognition achieved that will resolve the problem which was raised at the inciting moment.
Often a surprise or reversal of what the reader expects occurs.
What is the climax of “Everyday Use”?
(a) Listening to and looking at Maggie, whose selflessness in being willing to surrender something which she treasures in order to promote family ______, Mrs. Johnson realizes the depth of Dee’s ______.
(b) She recognizes that her older daughter, despite her education, really does not understand the heritage involved in the quilts: What Dee disdainfully calls Maggie’s “______use” (par. 66)actually celebrates the family’s heritage better than Dee’s planned faddish displays of the quilts, her mothermentally concludes.