Tone In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

Written during the year 1973, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a first-person short story about three characters, Mama, Dee, and Maggie. The character, Mama, narrates the story from her own point of view. Written during a time when African Americans struggled for control of self-recognition and acceptance in society, this short story represents unappreciated people who struggle for their unique place in the society they reside. Overall, the story’s scene takes place in a rather peaceful environment where the character, Mama, provides a point of view that describes her children, Dee and Maggie. Each character provides a unique tone to the story.

Maggie is shy. Her shyness explained through the tragic house fire sets the tone associated with Maggie’s character. Maggie has scarred skin, which is blatantly apparent to others, reflects some of Maggie’s true innocence and emotion. Mama describes, “Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggie’s arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black pepper flakes. Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflected in them” (Walker, 1973, pg. pg. 346). Mama follows this statement by adding that ever since the fire, “She

Presented as a private space, Mama’s yard connects the series of events that take place throughout the story. The story begins with the yard and ends with the yard. To Mama, she remains sensitive and attached to each detail of the yard, referring to the yard as “not just a yard. It is like an extended living room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside of the house (Walker, 1973, pg. 345). To Mama, the yard is a place where she is free and filled with goodness and comfort, whereas the house is a place where Mama is