Everyday Use by Alice Walker

A. The mother of the story doesn’t think too highly of herself. Mama, the narrator of the story, describes as a “large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (paragraph 5). She does not paint an attractive picture of herself. However, she goes on to list the many things she can do. Like the items in the setting around her, she seems more interested in practicality, and less interested in creative. In the story, we know that the mother appears to be having a conflicted relationship with her two daughters. Even though she is illiterate, that does not prevent her from having a real understanding of her heritage. She is practical and uneducated. The appreciation she has for an inheritance, and practical nature differentiates her from her two daughters, which represents the historical importance of the African American Culture.

B. Mama is the first- person narrator. She is very reliable and trustworthy. As a single mother, Mama has shown her hard work and strength in raising her daughters during a tough time. She explains that she is very protective of her heritage and culture.

C. Upon the arrival of her daughter Dee whom she assumes to be successful, who had gone to get her education? She is surprised about Dee’s new style and changes, thus considering. Dee does not understand that the material object does not display real cultural heritage. I agree while Dee changes her lifestyle after college; it is she who do not understand heritage and culture and not so much her mother and sister. (Walker, 2014).

D. From Dee’s perspective, she would be someone with self-identity problems. She recognized as having a dual identity. Dee is torn between living her heritage and presenting the culture as an outsider. She tries to be grateful of the quits as part of heritage fine art from a reserve culture and then telling off her mother for not be pleased about her heritage. It appears as if Dee wants to show the quits as if they were reminders from her stay in a foreign culture, rather than objects, which symbolize the heritage of her innate as well.

E. Dee/Wangero see her mom and her sister in an unfavorable view. She seems them with a light of shame and oppression and no longer wants to associate with them. They also differ on what heritage is. The mother believes that family objects