Everyday Use

"In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero degree weather." p. 174

In this short story, the character of Mama stood out to me the most. The fact that she is the narrator and talking about herself and her two children allowed me, as a reader, to understand her more fully. She directly characterized herself in the beginning, "in real life, I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands" (p. 174). She also refers to herself being uneducated by saying that her school closed down while she was in the second grade. Finally, she infers that she is African American: "colored asked fewer questions then". In addition to her direct characterization, the reader can infer that she is a pushover and not assertive. This is showed throughout the story whenever she gave her daughter, Dee, her way. For example, she sent her to a boarding school and let her take all the things she wanted from the house in the very end (pictures, salt and pepper shakers, etc.). However, she had a major character shift towards the end of the story when Dee wanted to take the quilts and she denied her that "gift" because it was supposed to go to Maggie. This shift showed her transitioning from someone who was a pushover to someone who was rubbed the wrong way and could be assertive.