By Alice Walker
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best-known for her novel The Color Purple,
which was published in 1982 and won both
the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book
Award the following year
The novel was adapted into a movie that was
nominated for an Academy Award in 1985,
produced by Quincy Jones and directed by
Stephen Spielberg.
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an amazingly productive and versatile writer.
published five novels, four collections of
poetry, two collections of short stories, three
books of essays, and many articles and
stories for magazines
edited a book about one of her mentors, the
writer Langston Hughes, served as a
contributing editor for Ms. Magazine
has taught at several colleges and
universities.
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Have you ever read a story in which you can
see yourself in one of the characters? If yes,
what story was it? What did you have in
common with the character?
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Each person shares his/her response.
No comments and interruptions until
everyone has shared.
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Based on the title, Everyday Use, what do you
think the story is about?
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Each person shares his/her response.
No comments and interruptions until
everyone has shared.
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You’ll find three characters dominate
“Everyday Use”
A woman and her two adult daughters:
Mama, Maggie, and Dee
In one interview about this story, Walker said
she thinks of the characters as herself, split
into three related parts.
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recompose
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Regain calmness and control
 Asking
questions
 Predicting
 Visualizing
 Making
connections
 Summarizing
 Reflecting
and
relating
 Evaluating
 Revising meaning
 Forming
interpretations
 clarifying
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Draw a plot diagram for the story.
How would you divide the plot and explain
your reasons.
What is the conflict and climax of the story?
Write a 2-Chunk paragraph per character.
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What kind of person is Maggie?
What kind of person is Dee?
What kind of person is the mother?
1. List the characteristics of the three main
characters in “Everyday Use” as they are
revealed by the narrator. How do the
differences between these two characters add
to the conflict in the story. What IS the
conflict?
2. What is the point of view in “Everyday Use”?
How does the style of writing reflect the
character of the person who tells the story?
That is, look at the language of the speaker.
What are characteristics of that language and
how do those characteristics reflect the
personality of the speaker?
3. What do the quilts symbolize? What other
evidence in the story lead us to see the quilts
as symbols of a bigger issue? How does the
climactic ending turn the tables on Dee’s use
of terms like “backward” and “heritage”?
What is ironic about Dee’s use of these
words?
4. How does the title hint at the central theme
of the story? What other evidence in the story
hints at the central theme? What is that
central theme? What in the story helps
especially to bring the theme to life for you
and keep it from becoming an abstract idea?
5. What IRONY occurs when the departing Dee
accuses her mother and sister of not
understanding "your heritage" (845,
par. 82)? Significantly who smiles at this
point, and why does she smile?
6. Who is the ANTAGONIST of the
story? Explain.
7. In the end, with which characters does Alice
Walker seem to side on the issue of heritage?