Everyday Use Comprehension

The narrator calls her yard "an extended living room," what does this say about her as an individual?

• Her house doesn't have a big enough living room because she's poor, so they sit outside and pretend that they're inside the house.

• The narrator is a clean, hardworking woman, who wants her yard to be welcoming to her guests, so she extends her cleanliness into her yard.

• The narrator is nervous about the arrival of her guests, so she cleans the yard to help ease her nerves.

• The narrator doesn't want dirt from the yard to enter her living room, so she makes sure to clean it thoroughly.

The narrator dreams of material things, but describes herself as "a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands." What does this contrast tell us about her?

• She dreams of things she has had in the past, but has settled into her role as a mom now, so she's had to let her life go.

• The quote proves that she is fulfilling the role of a mother and father in the story and is being practical about her reality. She can still dream, though.

• The fact that the mom compares herself to a man makes it so that she is less likely to get married and get help from a man.

• The mom has no material possessions, so she has to be happy about the things she does have and dream about the things that she does not.

The fact that Ms. Johnson can't even imagine "looking a strange white man in the eye" and that Dee "would always look anyone in the eye," proves that...

• Dee and Ms. Johnson have different personalities.

• Dee and Ms. Johnson have different ideologies about society and where/how they fit in with others.

• Dee and Ms. Johnson were raised differently, which has impacted the way they live their lives.

• Dee and Ms. Johnson have different expectations of others.

When the mom describes her two daughters, she focuses on the fact that Maggie is like a wounded animal, while Dee has "nicer hair and a fuller figure." What can we infer about the two sisters from the comparison?

• The mom has a favorite daughter and it's obviously Dee because Dee is more confident and better looking than Maggie.

• The mom is describing the daughters as others see them, not necessarily how she sees them through her eyes.

• Maggie lives in Dee's shadow because Dee is more confident, while Maggie's scars from the fire have overpowered her confidence.

• The daughters are very similar, but one is better looking than the other and she gets advantages that the other doesn't.

The fact that Dee "watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot brick chimney" while Maggie was severely burned shows that

• Dee was more worried about herself and saving herself than others.

• The sisters had different ideas about right and wrong.

• The sisters hated one another and Dee didn't care enough to save Maggie, which shows that their relationship wasn't good.

• The house was not a place of familial love and belonging, but was actually a place of pain and trauma for them both.

Which of the following quotes proves that Dee liked to brag?

• "She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two"

• "she washed us in a river of make-believe"

• "She will marry John Thomas"

• "She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts"

Which of the following proves the mom's resentment toward Dee?

• When in her daydream, the mom imagines Dee hugging her with tears in her eyes.

• "She would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature."

• "Why don't you do a dance around her ashes?"

• "I never had an education myself."

Select the examples which prove that Dee is trying to escape her own heritage?

• When she exits the car, the first thing she does is take pictures of the house and her mom and sister in a way that seems as if she is collecting evidence/artifacts of her past.

• She wants to take home the quilts to display it in her home (as art, perhaps), but not use them for their practical use-- as a sort of blanket.

• She wants to take home a few of the possessions that have been passed down from ancestors, but doesn't want to keep the name that was also passed down to her.

• When she exits the car, in "loud colors."

At the end of the story, Dee says to Maggie that she should make something of herself because "it's really a new day for us." What is she trying to do by saying this?

• She's trying to tell her sister that she hasn't taken advantage of the new way people of color are treated.

• She is still mad about the house that was burned down and she is trying to burn this one with her words.

• She's trying to say the last word in the argument.

• She is trying to insult her mom and sister and the way they still live with such old traditions when they could educate themselves as she did and find better opportunity elsewhere.

How is Dee portrayed as an ungrateful person in the short story?

• Her mom raised money to send her to a good school, but Dee is using her education as a way to prove that she is smarter/better.

• She closes the car door very hard, proving that she doesn't appreciate material possessions.

• She says that she will not have her friends come for visits to her home town due to the fact that she's embarrassed of her mom and sister's living situation.

• She wants to take things that are used daily from her poor family to use as art in her home, but hasn't offered to use her money to replace anything.