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Analysis of Everyday Use

This summary provides the key details about the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker in 3 sentences: Mama narrates the story and describes waiting for her daughter Dee to visit with her boyfriend Hakim-a-barber, reflecting on Dee's rejection of her heritage and family in favor of her African roots, while Mama and her other daughter Maggie embrace their American heritage through family heirlooms. Dee arrives dressed extravagantly and greets Mama and shy Maggie in foreign phrases, immediately starting to photograph the run-down family home that she used to despise.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
232 views11 pages

Analysis of Everyday Use

This summary provides the key details about the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker in 3 sentences: Mama narrates the story and describes waiting for her daughter Dee to visit with her boyfriend Hakim-a-barber, reflecting on Dee's rejection of her heritage and family in favor of her African roots, while Mama and her other daughter Maggie embrace their American heritage through family heirlooms. Dee arrives dressed extravagantly and greets Mama and shy Maggie in foreign phrases, immediately starting to photograph the run-down family home that she used to despise.

Uploaded by

mohcine
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Overview

Author: Alice Walker


Year Published: 1973
Type: Short Story
Genre: Fiction
Perspective and Narrator:
The events of "Everyday Use" are narrated in the first person by Mrs. Johnson, also called
Mama. She offers a homespun, straightforward, sometimes humorous and sometimes
painfully honest evaluation of the people and events of the story.
Tense: Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is narrated in the present tense.
About the Title:
The title "Everyday Use" refers to how people treat items that are part of their cultural
heritage: as they were meant to be used or as preserved works of art. How they view these
parts of their lives says something important about how they view themselves.

Characters
Mama: Mama is a strong, proud, sincere, heavyset, middle-aged rural woman who has
worked hard all her life. Read More
Dee: A bold, opinionated, forceful young woman, Dee uses her intelligence, sharp tongue,
and education to get what she wants. Read More
Maggie:Slow-moving, slow-witted Maggie, Mama's younger daughter, is a reclusive young
woman who lacks confidence. Read More
Hakim-a-barber:Longhaired, bearded Hakim-a-barber, Dee's boyfriend, is an educated,
black, Muslim young man. Read More
Uncle Buddy: Uncle Buddy whittled a butter churn top that was passed down through the
family.
Grandma Dee:Grandma Dee is Mama's grandmother and a quilt maker.
Dicie: Dicie, also called Aunt Dee or Big Dee, is Mama's sister and a quilt maker.
Great Grandpa Ezra:Great Grandpa Ezra fought in the Civil War; a piece of his uniform
became part of a family quilt.
Henry:Henry, also called Stash, was Aunt Dee's husband and whittled a butter churn dasher
(churning stick) that was passed down through the family.
Grandpa Jarrell:Grandpa Jarrell is a family member whose clothing became part of a family
quilt.
Jimmy T:Jimmy T dated Dee in her younger years and jilted her for a girl from the city.
John Thomas:Maggie's fiancé, John Thomas has "mossy teeth in an earnest face."
Themes
Heritage:
Though Mama, Maggie, and Dee come from the same family, Dee has very different ideas
about heritage than Mama and Maggie do. Dee rejects the American part of her heritage
because African Americans have been oppressed; instead, she focuses solely on her African
origins. She claims "Dee" is dead; she associates the name with this history of oppression
and wants nothing to do with it. She takes for herself an African name instead, confirming her
personal heritage in Africa. This action effectively wipes away her American heritage as if it
never existed. It gives no acknowledgment of or gratitude to her current family members or
ancestors, thus making her desire for her grandmother's quilts seem all the more
inappropriate.

Mama and Maggie, on the other hand, also embrace their American heritage as well as their
past. They honor their immediate ancestors, keeping their memory alive through family
heirlooms and passed-down skills. Mama's knowledge of her ancestors extends back to the
Civil War, and from there she begins her personal history—for them American rather than
African. Maggie learned quilting from Grandma Dee and carries on the tradition. Mama and
Maggie are also content to live the same modest, rural life their predecessors lived, a
decision Dee cannot remotely understand.

Dissociation:
Throughout the story, Dee does not want to associate with her own family; she is
embarrassed by her family's poverty and lack of refinement. She has separated her life from
her family as much as she possibly can, returning only for occasional visits. Dee once wrote
Mama she would "never bring her friends" to the family home. She also urges Maggie to
make a better life for herself by leaving behind what Dee sees as an outdated mode of living.
As she explains to Maggie, "It is a new day now." For Dee the day of hand-stitched quilts is
long gone; she believes people should live in more modern ways because they can. For
Mama and Maggie the day of hand-stitched quilts is still alive, and since they are content
with their lives, they have no reason to leave it behind.

Dee is dissociated not only from her immediate family but also from her ancestral roots in the
South. She rejects the American part of her heritage, turning to Africa as her adopted
ancestral homeland instead. In doing so she rejects the strong, capable women who have
passed down their traits and skills through the family lineage. She discounts the named,
known women of her family after whom she is named, thus continuing the tradition, in favor
of unnamed, unknown ancestors from another continent entirely.

And yet Dee wants to grab onto family heirlooms as a way of proving her heritage. Objects
like the quilts show the hard work her ancestors put into simple, everyday living. For Dee
they are a visual reminder of an impoverished past that she, personally, has overcome. Her
desire to display these objects shows pride but not necessarily pride in her heritage; rather it
is pride in her own achievements and in the advancement of African Americans in general. It
is as if Dee wants to display the heirlooms as a way of saying, "This is where we came from,
but I and we, we are better than that now." Even though she wants to possess the objects,
she is no longer connected to them and their meanings. Dee is far removed from her
heritage, viewing it from a distance like a work of art; Mama and Maggie live it every day.

Authenticity versus Superficiality:


Dee demonstrates superficiality throughout the story, beginning with her focus on outward
appearances. "Dee wanted nice things," Mama recalls, describing the clothes she wore in
high school and how "at sixteen, she had a style of her own: and knew what style was." Dee
is aware of how the world judges people on the basis of appearance, and she carefully
cultivates hers to send the message she wants people to receive. She clearly favors style
over substance.

On the contrary, Mama and Maggie prefer substance to style. They live authentically in that
they do not pretend or aspire to be something they are not. They live in a poor house with
worn furnishings and wear simple, functional clothes. They cook traditional, substantial foods
no one would consider fashionable but that they like. They do crafts, like quilting, that are
useful and practical rather than merely decorative. They appreciate their down-to-earth
heritage, enjoying the simple comforts of the life they lead. Dee could never be happy in such
a life; she strives for things she views as better, or more fashionable and costly: better
clothes, a better home, a better education.

The quilts Dee wants illustrate the differences between the women's attitudes. Dee, who
once called the quilts "old-fashioned, out of style" and rejected them, now wants to show
them off in her home to impress others. Her motivation is superficial. Mama and Maggie,
however, love the quilts because of their history, and using the quilts in everyday life is a way
of authentically honoring and remembering their ancestors.
Summary
Waiting for Dee
The story opens in the yard of Mama's house, a small wooden structure in the middle of a
pasture in the rural South. Mama describes herself and people she knows. She describes
her shy daughter Maggie, who stands in "envy and awe" of her sister Dee, who seemingly
"has held life always in the palm of one hand."

She tells of a recurring dream in which Dee greets her with an embrace on a TV talk show. In
the dream Mama appears as what she says would be Dee's ideal image of her: "I am the
way my daughter would want me to be," she says: thinner, with "skin like an uncooked barley
pancake" and glistening hair. This doesn't connect with the reality of who she is, though,
which is "a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands." Mama talks about her
physical strength and the practical way she lives her life, from wearing overalls to butchering
meat.
Maggie emerges from the house, timid, her eyes downcast. Mama describes how a house
fire some 10 years ago scarred Maggie and how she has been reclusive since then,
embarrassed by her disfigurement. She also tells how Dee, who hated the house, was not
saddened when it burned down: "Why don't you do a dance around the ashes? I wanted to
ask her," says Mama.

Mama mentions how she and the church paid for Dee's education in Augusta, a medium-
sized city in Georgia, and how Dee "used to read to us without pity," forcing them to listen to
"a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know." Mama's own education was cut
short in second grade when her school closed, and she laments that Maggie, too, is not
particularly smart—nor good looking, nor rich. She reveals Maggie is set to marry John
Thomas, "who has mossy teeth in an earnest face."

As Mama waits for Dee to arrive, she describes the run-down condition of the house, with its
tin roof and rawhide coverings over the rough-cut holes that serve as windows: "No doubt
when Dee see it she will want to tear it down," Mama muses. She also reflects on Dee's life
as a teenager, during which she had few friends, who were mostly "impressed with her"
rather than fond of her, as well as one would-be boyfriend, Jimmy T. After Dee "turned all her
faultfinding power on him," he jilted her and married a city girl, an event that threw Dee for a
loop.

The Arrival
As Dee arrives, shy Maggie tries to escape into the house, but Mama calls her back. Dee
emerges from the car in gold jewelry and a floor-length orange and yellow dress "so loud it
hurts my eyes." Dee's boyfriend, a man with "hair to his navel" and a long beard, also gets
out of the car. Both greet Mama and Maggie with foreign phrases, "Wa-su-zo-Tean-o" from
Dee and "Asalamalakim" from the man. He attempts to hug Maggie, who backs away; when
he tries to shake her hand, again she pulls away.

Mama is seated in front of the house, and Dee fetches a Polaroid camera from the car. She
starts snapping pictures, "making sure the house is included," as well as Mama, Maggie, and
a cow that wanders into the yard. After she has taken pictures, she greets her mother with a
kiss.

Mama calls her by name, but Dee corrects her and says her name is now Wangero. Dee is
dead, she says: "I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me."
Her mother objects, reminding her daughter she was named after family members: her aunt
Dicie, her grandmother Dee, and her great-grandmother. Mama thinks she could trace the
name back past the Civil War but doesn't bother to do so for the benefit of the visitors. Mama
agrees to call Dee by the name Wangero, and she practices the pronunciation. She also
learns the boyfriend's name, which she takes to be Hakim-a-barber. (Until now she has been
calling him "Asalamalakim" to herself.) She wonders aloud if he is related to "those beef-
cattle peoples down the road," which he denies, saying, "I accept some of their doctrines, but
farming and raising cattle is not my style."
Dinner
The group sits down to dinner, where Dee plows through the home-cooked food and makes
a fuss over the benches her father made "when we couldn't afford to buy chairs." Then she
remembers she wanted to ask Mama for some items from the house. She jumps up and
removes the top and the dasher (churning stick) from the butter churn, which she wants
because both were whittled by family members. Even though the churn is still full of milk,
Dee wraps the pieces to take home. She announces her plans to display them as "artistic"
decorations around her house.

After dinner Dee rummages through Mama's storage trunk without asking and pulls out two
heirloom quilts, which Grandma Dee, Aunt Dee, and Mama pieced together and sewed from
pieces of clothing worn by family ancestors. When Dee asks if she can take the quilts, Mama
tries to persuade her to take others instead: "I don't want those," Dee answers, "They are
stitched around the borders by machine." Mama moves to touch the quilts, but Dee backs
away "just enough so that I couldn't reach the quilts. They already belonged to her."

Mama then tells her the quilts have been promised to Maggie for her wedding to John
Thomas. Shocked, Dee protests Maggie would ruin the quilts by putting them to "everyday
use." Mama retorts, "I hope she will!" and informs Dee that Maggie can make herself new
quilts if these wear out. Dee persists, stating she would hang the quilts for display.

Meanwhile Maggie has crept into the conversation. She meekly offers to give the quilts to
Dee, "like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her." A
realization dawns on Mama: "This was Maggie's portion. This was the way she knew God to
work." Mama has a burst of religious euphoria and hugs Maggie, then does "something I
never had done before." She snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, telling
Dee to take other quilts instead. Dee does not reply but instead leaves the house with
Hakim-a-barber.

At the car Dee remarks that Mama doesn't understand her heritage. Then she kisses Maggie
and urges her to "make something of [her]self." She points out times have changed, saying,
"It's really a new day for us," and criticizes Maggie and Mama for continuing to live the way
they do. As Dee leaves, Maggie smiles. Mama and Maggie share some snuff and sit for the
remainder of the evening outdoors, "just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go
to bed."

Analysis
Narrative Impact of Mama
As the central figure of the story and the Johnson family, Mama offers unique and honest
insights into the events and characters of the story. Alice Walker's choice to use first-person
point of view allows the reader to connect deeply with Mama. It is as if the reader is
eavesdropping, reading Mama's most intimate thoughts, related with the same blunt honesty
she might use with a close confidante.

Using language familiar to her, Mama describes herself in very modest terms several times
during the story. She matter-of-factly relates her lack of education, her terrible singing voice,
and her large, work-toughened body. These humbling admissions make her easy to relate to
and establish credibility with the audience; Mama knows she isn't perfect, and she can admit
it freely. She is not ashamed of who she is, and she accepts herself easily and honestly. Her
candid self-evaluation enables the reader to accept her evaluation of her daughters as well.

Comparison of the Sisters


Walker sets up a direct comparison of characters in the sisters Maggie and Dee, who could
not be more different. Maggie has a "thin body," while Dee "is lighter than Maggie, with nicer
hair and a fuller figure." Worldly Dee is attractive and dynamic and has cultivated "a style of
her own," while homebody Maggie is unattractive, slow, and unstylish, and shows no desire
to become any of these. Maggie is shy, uneducated, and not especially smart, whereas Dee
is talkative, well educated, and clever. However, the comparisons do not all favor Dee. Dee
is blatantly selfish, superficial, and condescending, in contrast to Maggie, who is quietly
generous, kind, and shows a certain depth of understanding that far exceeds Dee's.

On the surface Maggie is portrayed in an unflattering light through much of the story, as
Mama pounces on her daughter's negative qualities. For example, in the second paragraph
Mama uses words like nervous, homely, and ashamed, making the reader feel pity for
Maggie, who, as Mama adds later, walks like a lame dog sidling up to someone for attention.

In describing Dee, however, Mama uses admiring terms. Maggie views Dee with "envy and
awe," making Dee seem larger than life. As Mama says, "'No' is a word the world never
learned to say to her." This remark foreshadows what Mama will tell her daughter later in the
story. Until now Dee has always gotten what she wants, through her seeming smarts, her
will, and the force of her personality: "She was determined to stare down any disaster in her
efforts," Mama relates. And she has—Dee has succeeded in escaping the life of poverty she
detested and worked to overcome. Along with her bright orange and yellow dress, a symbol
of her identification with her African heritage, bold, brazen Dee outshines her retiring, dimmer
sister in almost every way.

However, as the story continues, the reader begins to notice more about Maggie: her
industriousness, her modesty, and her acceptance of life. She respects her heritage and
genuinely loves her family members, including Dee, who is not particularly kind to her.

Dee's actions, in contrast, are those of a self-absorbed, grasping, superficial woman. She
cares about appearances; at its core her character is "style over substance." Dee's new
name, Wangero, is attention-getting and falls in line with the trend of the era to take an
African name—it is in style, and she likes to be in style even if the name has no relation to
Dee's personal history; it's just an African name that Walker encountered during her stay in
Uganda. However, Dee, the name she rejects, is full of substance; it carries the history of her
family back several generations.

Dee is concerned primarily with herself. She takes family heirlooms from the house without
really asking. The artifacts Dee considers heirlooms, however, are household items Mama
and Maggie are using. Dee presents her desires and decisions as complete, not expecting
her family to defy her. For example, when Dee first picks up the two handmade quilts, Mama
notices Dee backing away "so that I couldn't reach the quilts. They already belonged to her."
When Mama refuses to give her the quilts, Dee, in her usual condescending way, calls
Maggie "backward" and informs her mother, "You just will not understand."

Relationships with Mama


In the first part of the story Mama tells about herself, her daughters, and the life she has
lived. She particularly focuses on the differences among Dee, Maggie, and herself.

The fire that burned down their house years ago is a key event that happened before
"Everyday Use" begins. The fire burned Maggie badly, and Mama blames the incident for
Maggie's reclusiveness. Mama draws insights about Dee from the incident, too. As the house
burned, Dee simply watched, standing apart from her mother and sister; she did not try to
help them and showed no concern about Maggie's injuries. Instead, she watched intently as
the flames devoured every board. Mama's bitter comment about Dee dancing around the
ashes shows her resentment of Dee's attitude and negativity toward her family, a resentment
she suppressed at the time.

Dee seems to have no appreciation that her mother and the church paid for her education.
Rather she used her newfound knowledge in a typically condescending way, by reading
aloud to her mother and sister about topics far over their heads and in which they had no
interest. She lords her education over them rather than showing gratitude for it. In Dee's mind
she may be trying to help Mama and Maggie, but the fact remains she wishes they would
"improve" themselves. She cannot accept her poor, rural surroundings and thus cannot
accept those people who do. However, despite her education and intellect, Dee is quite
dense when it comes to understanding human beings.

Cultural Invasion
When Dee and Hakim-a-barber arrive, Mama narrates their arrival as if two creatures from
another planet have descended on the house. Their greetings in foreign languages, the
extreme hairstyles, and Dee's clothes underscore how different they are from Mama and
Maggie. Hakim-a-barber's greeting of Asalamalakim is an instance of situational irony. The
Arabic phrase is translated as "Peace be upon you," but their arrival brings anything but
peace to the household, foreshadowing strife and a battle of wills. It also creates confusion,
with Mama thinking the phrase is actually the man's name. This misunderstanding displays
Mama's ignorance of the trends Dee and Hakim-a-barber are following: the reclaiming of
cultural heritage by African Americans in the middle to late 1960s.
Even before Dee properly greets Mama, she starts snapping photos of the dilapidated home
and its residents. She wants the photos as proof of her humble beginnings and the poverty
she has escaped, rather than for sentimental reasons. Dee next announces that she has
changed her given name to an African name. Its length and difficult pronunciation give a nod
to Dee's higher education and make the statement she has rejected her American heritage in
favor of distant African roots. When she informs Mama the name Dee came from "the people
who oppress me," her meaning is white people, who historically oppressed blacks in the
United States. However, another implication is that Dee has felt oppressed by her own
family, too; she is ashamed of her family's poverty and has struggled to overcome it. By
rejecting her name, she rejects the life Mama and Maggie still lead. Dee's desire to amass
decorative heirlooms, therefore, shows situational irony because her actions show her
turning up her nose at tradition and immediate ancestry at the same time as she wants to
collect and memorialize it and as her closest family members are living it.

Hakim-a-barber's statements shed light on his values, as well. When Mama asks if he is
associated with "those beef-cattle peoples down the road," she is likely referring to Muslims
living nearby. He responds that he accepts some of their values—the tenets of Islam, one
thinks, as he does not eat pork—but he has no interest in farming or in agricultural traditions.
An indication of this rejection may be his refusal to eat the traditional collard greens (that
have no religious prohibitions) as well as the pork. He thus separates himself from the rural
Muslims and rural life in general.

At dinner Dee praises various handmade items in the house as she sets the stage for getting
what she wants: more proof of her "humble" heritage to take home and show off as "artistic"
artifacts. She wants only the one-of-a-kind, handmade pieces, nothing made by machine, a
desire that shows her snobbery. Only the best—and what she judges to be the most
authentic—will do for Dee. Her interest in her targeted objects completely overlooks their
uses and the fact that some of them are indeed in use daily in Mama's house.

Mama's reluctance to give Dee the quilts she wants sets up the scene from which the story
gets its title. Dee is horrified Maggie might submit the quilts to "everyday use," which could
ruin them from wear and tear. She views the quilts as museum-quality artifacts instead of
what they actually are: practical, yet beautifully designed and crafted, items created for daily
use. On the other hand, Mama and Maggie believe by using the quilts as intended, they
honor and remember their ancestors and keep family traditions alive. The quilts serve as a
symbol of these traditions and of the hard work and creativity of many generations of African
American women.

Maggie's offer to give the quilts to Dee prompts an epiphany or sudden realization for Mama.
Suddenly Mama views the world through Maggie's eyes: Maggie who gets little and expects
less from life, having become accustomed to the little she has. Mama realizes even though
"this was the way she knew God to work," giving much to others and little to Maggie, Mama
has the power to change this pattern for her long-suffering daughter. She also realizes
Maggie deserves the quilts; she has worked hard all her life, and she honors her ancestors in
the same way Mama does. It is then Mama does "something I had never done before." She
actually says "no" to Dee, who Mama believes does not deserve the quilts. For once Maggie
will win out over her demanding, overachieving, pretentious sister.

A New Era
Dee's departure highlights how little she understands her family. Although times indeed have
changed as Dee explains and exemplifies, Mama and Maggie are not interested in
participating in those changes. When Dee encourages Maggie to "make something" of
herself, she is reaffirming her belief that her family is beneath her. Dee fails to understand
that Mama and Maggie are content as they are. If a new era began for Dee with her
education, even before her neo-African kinship, with her departure, a new era also begins for
Mama and Maggie, one in which their bond is closer than ever and in which Maggie has not
lost out to her sister. Her mother's show of support and her small triumph over Dee leave
Maggie with a smile on her face, an expression Mama enjoys seeing.
Symbols
Quilts
In "Everyday Use" quilts represent the creativity, skill, and resourcefulness of African
American women. Women like Grandma Dee used and reused whatever material they had at
hand to create functional, beautiful items. Quilts also represent the Johnson family heritage
in particular. The quilts in the story include pieces of fabric from items belonging to ancestors
and relatives nearer the present time, including Grandma Dee's dresses, Grandpa Jarrell's
paisley shirts, and Great-Grandpa Ezra's Civil War uniform.

Finally, quilts invite comparison of the different attitudes the main characters display toward
their family heritage and how to honor it. While Dee wishes to display the quilts as a way of
preserving and "showing off" her history, Mama and Maggie feel they can better honor their
ancestors by using the quilts in the way they were intended: as a part of everyday life. In fact
they have learned the art of quilting and will continue to preserve the tradition, whereas with
Dee hanging the quilts on her wall, the tradition will end in a sterile fashion, as in a museum.

Hands
Hands represent the hard work women do to survive and improve their lives. The women of
the Johnson family have a history of making something out of nothing, bringing comfort and
beauty to daily life through their skill and determination. Mama has "rough, man-working
hands," a testament to the difficult physical labor she has done all her life, from butchering
animals to raking the hard clay of her barren, sandy yard. Maggie's hands, scarred from the
fire, may not be beautiful, but they are nonetheless useful and productive; Maggie quilts and
helps with work around the house, from doing dishes to raking the yard. Grandma Dee
stitched quilts by hand, a fact that amazes citified Dee, who never learned to quilt or use her
hands for traditional work.

When Mama observes Hakim-a-barber trying to shake a reluctant Maggie's hand, she notes
he "wants to shake hands but wants to do it fancy." This observation contrasts the two
characters. Hard-working Maggie is uncomfortable with Hakim-a-barber, an educated,
somewhat pretentious man who lives a life removed from physical labor; the characters exist
in two different worlds.

Clothing
Alice Walker uses clothing to represent Dee's chosen identity as Wangero Leewanika
Kemanjo, a proud, modern, black woman who embraces her African, rather than her
American, heritage. Unlike Maggie, who wears typical—and unfashionable, ill-matched—
American clothes, a pink skirt and red blouse, Dee arrives for her visit in full African garb.
The flowing dress, which drapes down to the ground, is not suited to the hot weather and is
"so loud it hurts my eyes," according to Mama. The bright yellows and oranges "throw back
the light of the sun," an allusion both to the hot sun of Africa and to Dee's own attitude: she
shines proudly in her identity and wants the world to see her splendor. Gold is the precious
metal of royalty, and Dee's gold earrings reflect her self-image as a powerful woman to be
admired, much like royalty. The earrings, along with Dee's jangling bracelets, are flashy and
impossible to ignore. Through her choice of clothing, Dee demands respect and attention.
Alice Walker: Biography

Alice Walker, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple, was born to
sharecropper parents on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Walker's early childhood
was happy despite economic poverty. Her parents greatly valued education and made sure
all of their eight children, of whom Alice was the youngest, attended school. Later her mother
worked as a maid to make extra money to help pay for Alice's college education. Walker's
background is reflected in "Everyday Use" in the simple lives of the main characters, its focus
on education, and in the strength of Mrs. Johnson.

At age eight Walker was blinded in one eye when one of her brothers accidentally shot her
with a BB gun. Embarrassed by her scars and her classmates' teasing, Walker became shy
and turned to reading and writing poetry. Studious and bright, Walker published her first short
story in 1961, the year she graduated from high school as valedictorian. She earned a
scholarship to Spelman College in Atlanta, where she became active in the civil rights
movement of the 1960s. After two years Walker transferred to Sarah Lawrence College and
spent an exchange year studying in Africa. In 1967 she married Melvyn Leventhal, with
whom she had a daughter.

Walker has spent most of her career teaching and writing. Her first collection of poetry, Once,
appeared in 1968 and her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, in 1970. Much of
her writing and her continued activism have focused on black women's lives, racial equality,
and civil rights. In 1982 Walker won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Color Purple, which
was made into an award-winning film by Steven Spielberg three years later.

"Everyday Use" mirrors events and movements of Walker's life. The rural setting of the story
is likely Georgia, where Walker grew up. Like Walker, who was injured in childhood, the
character Maggie is disfigured in a fire, an event that causes her to withdraw from the world
around her. Walker also portrays the characters Dee and a man referred to as Hakim-a-
barber as representatives of the then-current social movement of black Americans reclaiming
their African heritage.

Walker has written more than 30 novels, nonfiction books, and collections of poetry and short
stories. She is regarded as one of the most important voices to emerge from the Black Arts
movement, along with authors such as Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou.

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