Can Bad be Good?

Can a negative experience ever be a good thing? How might it influence who we become?

• A bad or negative experience may seem terrible and dreadful when it happens to a person. But sometimes, a person gets something out of that unpleasant experience - he or she learns something from it. For example, if a person was speeding down the road, or not paying attention to the road while walking, they might get into car accidents. After they do get in the car accidents, they will learn to be more careful and cautious about their surroundings when driving or walking down the road. Big events leave big marks - good or bad - on our hearts, especially the negative ones. For example, we can refer back to Maggie in "Everyday Use". She wasn't always the shy and timid girl she is now. But after the big fire that burned her house down, she lost her confidence from before because of her burnt appearance she got when the fire licked her. She is always cowering because she believes that her sister is better than her. Even though she was burnt, she will slowly learn how to appreciate herself, which is an important lesson that everyone has to lean in life.

Character Traits and Conflict

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

Name a few of Mama's character traits. Cite details from the text to support your answer.

• Mama's main character trait is that she is tough. As the story says, Mama can "kill and clean a hog a mercilessly as a man", from which we can infer that she is a tough person who has to be tough in order to survive on the farms, since farmers are the ones who have to "cut up the meat first" before they enter the supermarket, and the meat also has to be cut up as food.
• Mama is also a caring and loving person. She cares a lot about her daughters, and wishes to have a better relationship with Dee, and she can communicate with Dee. Another example for her caring personality is that she protects the quilts for Maggie when Dee tries to take them away.

The driving forces of any story is conflict. Explain the conflicts Mama faces in the story. How are these conflicts resolved?

• One of the main conflicts is Mama's bad relationship with Dee. This is one of the conflicts that is not resolved; Dee's relationship with Mama did not improve. However, at the end of the story, Mama has a better relationship with Maggie.
• The other conflict is that Dee wants the quilts, but Mama refuses to give Dee the quilts because she realizes that it is Maggie who should have them, so Maggie gets them. Dee is upset, but Maggie is glad that she got the quilts, and Mama and Maggie's relationship improves.

Literary Analysis

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

What can you conclude about each character (Maggie and Dee) based on her feeling towards the quilts?

• Maggie can be described as a shy and nice person, and she is also someone who is afraid of Dee, similiar to Mama's feelings towards Dee. We can conclude these because first, she does not say things to Dee and Mama confidently, and hides herself all the time. Also, she even agreed to give up both the quilts, because she's nice. Another reason why Maggie gave up the quilt was because she is kind of afraid of Dee, afraid of her confident, stylish, and unique personality. Dee, however, wants the quilts only as a display object, not as an object that she would actually use in everyday life. We can conclude that she is very mean. This is because she says that Maggie would not appreciate the quilts even if she got them, just because she was the one who couldn't get the quilts.

Dee has left behind her rural Southern life and reinvented herself. Why, then, does she want to have the churn and the quilts?

• Even though Dee left her rural Southern life and reinvented, or urbanized, herself, she still wants the quilts because she wants an object (or many objects) to prove her heritage in the city, and that she also has an origin.

Read With A Purpose

The story "Everyday Use" focuses on the idea of family heritage. What is the conflict between the two visions of that heritage? Why does Dee accuse Mama of not understanding her heritage?

• Mama and Maggie differ from Dee because they live within, and with their heritage. For example, they are still a farming family living in a farmhouse, and they still use things that were passed down from previous generations (from people such as Grandma Dee, Big Dee, and Stash). They still sit on the benches from their old burned house, and also the churn and, most important of all, the quilts. The quilts are not used, but Mama was already planning to give Maggie the quilts, who will surely use them. Dee, on the other hand, has abandoned her heritage and become urbanized as she recieved eduction in the city. She now only view heritage as something to be displayed, as something to be proud of - her origin. But she never turned back and started to live her heritage again; she's still a city girl. 
• Dee accuses Mama of not understanding her heritage because she has a completely different point of view on the term "heritage" compared to Mama and Maggie after she was urbanized.

Reading Focus - Quick Check

From "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

1. According to Mama, how is Dee different from her and Maggie?

• Dee is different from Mama and Maggie due to her unique and characterized personality and also her unique style that she developed. She is also confident, not afraid to look in the eyes of white people, unlike Mama and Maggie. Another factor that changed Dee is that she received an education in the city, which shapes how she thinks, and also urbanizing her. Another thing that differs between Mama/Maggie and Dee is that Dee has lost her heritage - the way she lives, how she acts, and many of her family traditions, while Mama and Maggie still retain them. For example, Maggie knew how to quilt.

2. What different uses would Maggie and Dee have for the quilts?

• If Dee were to get the quilts, she would not have used them at all. Instead, she will hang it up as a decoration, as she implied in the story. Maggie, however, would actually use the quilts, and not waste them as mere decoration.

3. What is the significance of the story's title?

• It is saying that Dee wouldn't use the quilts at all (just hang it on the wall), but Maggie would actually put the quilts to work and use them everyday, as an everyday item.

Character Traits and Making Inferences

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

"She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her."

What word could you use to describe one of Maggie's character traits revealed in this sentence?

• There are many words you can use to describe Maggie's character traits. Envy and awe is an example. Because of her burnt scars, she envies her sister's beautiful skin, her hair, and her nice figure. She is also awed by her sister's own personal style. Another two words are shy and timid. Due to the fact that she envies her sister, she is shy and timid, and also afraid that she will be compared to her "perfect" sister. Therefore, she is ashamed of herself, and believes that she is homely compared to her sister.

Based on this passage, what can you infer about the narrator's relationship with Dee?

• From the passage, we can infer that Mama and Dee does not have a really good relationship. Mama, however, wants to be able to have a good relationship with her daughter, and to be the kind of mother that her daughter wants. She wishes that one day she and Dee will be able to love each other a lot and be able to appreciate each other. She also wishes that Dee is able to appreciate her good old Mama who brought her up and even saved enough money with the church to send her to school for an education.

How Does Heritage Contribute to Character?

These are the elements that can be a part of a person's heritage:

• culture
• tradition
• religion
• type of food
• language

• genes (DNA)
• education

  I believe that the most important part of a person's heritage is their culture, or social background. Although it is a broad category, I believe that it is the one that creates who I am now: what I like to eat, what celebrations I celebrate, what my point of view on something is, what types of languages I speak, and the most important is, what I believe is right and how I behave, which complements my beliefs and my point of views. Education is also another very important factor that influences my heritage, and it is partially influenced by culture, for example, what languages I speak.
  Having a unique heritage is not always a good thing, though. In kindegarten, I was at a New Zealand school. I was one of the only foreigners there, and it was made more obvious because I was an Asian. I was bullied due to my unique heritage, and look upon as an outcast. However, I am still proud of my heritage, and also my background.