Discussion Topic

The speaker's tendency to refrain from judgments or present less than the full truth in "Everyday Use" and its impact on her reliability

Summary:

The speaker in "Everyday Use" tends to refrain from judgments and often presents less than the full truth, which impacts her reliability. This selective narration can lead readers to question the completeness and objectivity of her account, making it necessary to read between the lines to understand the full context of events and character motivations.

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In "Everyday Use," where does the speaker refrain from judgment or present less than the full truth, and does this affect her reliability?

I would characterize the mother as a tough woman, a woman who has not lived an easy life but has done the very best she can for her daughters (who are two very different individuals). Mama dreams of being appreciated and valued by Dee, her somewhat estranged daughter, and she doesn't seem to realize how valued she is by her other daughter, Maggie, until the end of the story.

When Dee announces that her name is now Wangero, Mama reminds her that she was named after her aunt, who was named after Dee's grandmother. Mama asks Wangero to pronounce the new name again, and Wangero says that Mama does not have to call her that if Mama doesn't want to. However, Mama, says,

"Why shouldn't I? [...] If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you [....]. I'll get used to it [...]. Ream it out again."

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"Why shouldn't I? [...] If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you [....]. I'll get used to it [...]. Ream it out again."

This seems to me to be a pretty reserved response. Despite the fact that Dee is a family name with a great deal of history attached to it, Mama is not adamant about calling her daughter "Dee" when her daughter wants to be called something different.

As the other educator pointed out, there are times when Mama withholds things from her daughters, but she seems to do so out of love rather than an intention to deceive. She doesn't tell Maggie how "lame" she looks because that would hurt Maggie's feelings. She doesn't tell Dee how much the dasher means to her because she wants to make Dee happy. For these reasons, her choices about what to reveal to her daughters do not undercut her reliability, in my opinion.

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Your secondary question concerning the reticence of the narrator raises an interesting issue. The mode of narration in this story is first person, and because of this we must be aware that we might not be receiving an entirely reliable narrative - the "unreliable narrator" is a key aspect of first person narration, though perhaps here it is not so unreliable. However it is clear that the speaker is withholding information from both of her daughters, or perhaps, not willing to reveal the whole truth.

When Maggie asks her, "How do I look, Mama?", her mother dodges the question, and then goes on to tell us the readers how Maggie really looks:

Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks.

She does not reveal this "truth" to Maggie, but through the mode of narration we as readers are privileged with this information.

We are also left to infer how the speaker feels about her second daughter, the renamed Miss Wangero. However, it is clear from what she says and does that she disapproves of her and her actions. For example, the narrator buries the argument about the origins of Dee's name, even though, "in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches." Likewise, it is important to examine the use of words to describe Dee's acquisitiveness. She is described as "rifling" through the trunk, and the narrators meditation over the handle of the dasher, where she is obviously thinking of her family's history and how it has been passed down through the generations.

So the narrator, therefore, refrains from making overt judgements regarding her two daughters, though it is clear that this is often to keep the peace rather than a deliberate attempt to be deceitful.

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Where in "Everyday Use" does the speaker refrain from making judgments?

When the narrator, Mama, learns that her daughter, who she named Dee, now wants to be called Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, she does not seem to pass judgment on her daughter's decision. Despite Mama's explanation—that Dee was named after her Aunt Dicie, Mama's sister, and Aunt Dicie was named after Grandma Dee, who was named after her own mother, and so on—Wangero feels that her old name connects her to the history of slavery and that taking a new name would distance her from "'the people who oppress [her].'" When Mama asks her to say the name again, Wangero tells her that she does not have to use it if she does not want to, but Mama replies,

"Why shouldn't I? [...] If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you."

Although Wangero admits that it might seem awkward to call her a new name at first, Mama declares that she'll get used to it and tells her daughter to "Ream it out again." Even though she named her daughter after other respected family members, Mama doesn't take it personally or judge her daughter for wanting to make the change. She's really nonjudgmental and accepting of it. Perhaps she doesn't judge because she's learned not to oppose this daughter; Wangero has always been headstrong, stubborn, even sometimes cruel. It is likely easier to just let her have her way than to argue with her. Wangero seems to count on this dynamic when she requests the quilt later in the story.

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