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Essay Questions for Everyday UseDo strained family relationships have the ability to affect someone’s future? Explore your position. Consider this statement and apply it to the relationships between mama and her daughters? What are the effects of the kind of relationships that they have? How do you think mama feels about Dee’s success? Is she proud, or does she have mixed feelings? What is the significance of the daydream where she and Dee are reunited on the TV show? What does it say about their relationship? How do you imagine their relationship will progress if the story were to continue? Support your position with details from the story.Identify the Point of view from which the story is being told. Think of the individual who is telling the story. Is she a reliable character? Is there any reason to suspect that character would present the story from a bias perspective? Defend your position. If the story were told from a different point of view, would the understanding of the story would be different? How so? What kind of thing would be different if any of the other characters were to serve as narrator? Address this from the perspective of all three characters.The setting is not specific, but it is reasonable to conclude that the story is set in the rural south in the 1960’s. Provide details that work to shape your perception of the setting. Think specifically of the decade. What was life like for African Americans? Connect what you know about the past to the present; How has life for African American changed since the 1960’s? Or has it changed? Explore your plete a characterization of the Protagonist and the Antagonist. What details from the story provide evidence that these characters are in fact the protagonist and the Antagonist. Is the protagonist round? Flat? Static? Dynamic? Is the antagonist round? Flat? Static? Dynamic? Give details to support your position. Which character do you find most relatable? Why? A fair amount of attention is paid to the physical appearance of all three women in the story. Describe each one's appearance as fully as possible, and discuss the relationship between each woman's looks and her personality and behavior. What could each of these women symbolize in the story? Is the combination of personality, behavior and appearance of each character consistent with their modern day counterparts? What kind of conflicts surrounds the appearances of the characters? Are the core issues of the conflicts relevant in today’s society? Explain your position.We usually admire a person who rises out of poverty to get an education and better her circumstances, but in this story, the reader does not generally identify with Dee or sympathize with her. Why or why not? Do you see Dee as totally unlikable? Can you provide any defense of her attitudes and values? Do you think those traits that appear to be her shortcomings are actually both common and necessary for someone to progress in life? Should we admire Mama and Maggie who are not willing to change? In what ways does the story seem to be an affirmation of the narrator and Maggie? In what ways is it a satire on Dee? What does Dee say or do that reflect a growing interest in preserving her heritage? How are the butter churn, dasher and the quilts used to contrast Dee’s relationship with her heritage with Maggie’s? Is there anything ironic about Dee’s connection to her heritage? Think of a modern example where people an individual has a “connection” to their heritage similar to the one that Dee has.The only time that Walker uses the title in the story is when she says “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” she said. “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” What did Dee mean by this statement? What was her plan for the quilts? What are some possibilities for why Walker chose the title Everyday Use? What kinds of things were not implemented or “used” daily by the female characters that perhaps should have been?Who is Hakim-A-Barber? What is his purpose in the story? What does he represent? Why is the inclusion of a character like Hakim-A-Barber important for stories set in the 1960’s? Contrast him with John Thomas, the man Maggie is supposed to marry. What does John represent? If Hakim-A-Barber and John Thomas were to be compared to political leaders, who would they be? Why?At the end of the story, Dee tells Maggie, "It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama live you’d never know it." What does Dee mean? Who is the “us” she is referring to? Is it a new day for Maggie and Mama? Do they want it to be? Would the new day require them to make sacrifices? What contemporary examples can you identify where the situations for a group or demographic of people has changed or evolved, however they may not appear to be taking “advantage”? ................
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