Everyday Use

Grade Levels

Excerpt

Read the following excerpt from the story:

I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. I can work outsideall day, breaking ice to get water for washing. One winter, I knocked a bullcalf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledgehammer and had themeat hung up to chill before nightfall.

• What can the reader infer about Mama from the excerpt above? a.) She is ashamed of how she leads her life. b.) She is a very violent woman with little regard for life. c.) She is a woman who is used to hard work. d.) She is a woman who is arrogant about her abilities.

Read the following excerpt from the story:

How long ago was it that the other house burned? Ten, twelve years?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 paper flakes. AndDee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree…a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of thehouse fall in toward the red – hot brick chimney. Why don’t you do a dancearound the ashes? I’d wanted to ask her.

• Which of the following best explains the author’s use of literary elements in this passage? a.) The author uses personification to invoke a nostalgic tone. b.) The author uses metaphor to show Dee’s love of their old home. c.) The author uses idiom to show the pain and turmoil Maggie went through. d.) The author uses flashback to reveal Dee’s aloof character and Maggie’s nervous personality.

• Which of the following best describes the purpose of the story’s point-of – view? a.) The story uses third – person omniscient narration to allow the reader to see what every character is thinking and feeling. b.) The story uses third – person limited narration to show Maggie’s deep embarrassment about her scars. c.) The story uses first – person point-of-view to express a tone of adulation. d.) The story uses first – person point-of-view to give a very realistic tone.

• Based on pages 70 – 71, what can the reader infer about the narrator’s relationship with her two daughters? a.) The narrator feels a great deal of sympathy for Dee. b.) The narrator is much closer to Maggie than Dee. c.) The narrator envies Maggie and Dee’s success. d.) The narrator is angry because of Dee’s homecoming.

Read the following excerpt from the story:

She washed us in a river of make – believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know.

• Which of the following best explains the author’s use of figurative language?

a.) The author uses simile to show Dee’s cruelty towards her mother andsister. b.) The author uses metaphor to show how overbearing Dee’s personality was. c.) The author uses personification to explain how Dee embarrassed her family. d.) The author uses oxymoron to demonstrate the contradiction between Dee’s education and her family’s.

About

This is a highly anthologized story by Alice Walker. These questions are formatted like the Mississippi English II Subject Area Test.