Everyday Use

Walker uses dialect—the distinctive grammar, syntax, pronunciation, etc. of a regional, ethnic, or socioeconomic group—as a means of characterization. Although Mrs. Johnson’s narration largely follows the conventions of “standard” English, her dialogue more commonly conforms to Southern American English and/or African-American Vernacular; for example, she substitutes “them” for “these” when talking about giving “them quilts to Maggie” (Paragraph 64) and uses “was” as the catch-all past tense of the verb “to be” when she tells Dee, “you was named after your aunt Dicie” (Paragraph 28).

In capturing these speech patterns, Walker isn’t simply aiming for realism, but drawing a contrast between the narrator and her educated daughter. Dee probably grew up speaking a dialect similar to her mother’s but has since shed it in favor of standard English. Her exchanges with her mother underscore the fundamentally different attitudes each woman has to her identity as a southern, working-class black woman; although she embraces certain aspects of African-American identity, Dee is horribly embarrassed by much of her own family’s history, including the working-class life her mother leads. 

A simile is a comparison that uses “like” or “as.” It is a subtype of metaphor in general, as well as one of the most commonly used literary devices, and it features especially prominently in “Everyday Use,” where Walker often uses it in the service of characterization. Here, for instance, is how she describes Dee’s hair: “It is black as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards disappearing behind her ears” (Paragraph 20). In linking Dee to a reptile, Walker hints that she may be somewhat cold-blooded.

Walker’s use of similes like this one are all the more striking given the fact that the story is narrated in the first person. Mrs. Johnson’s voice is conversational and colloquial—she addresses the reader directly, breaks off in the middle of thoughts, etc.—but it is also highly literary in its reliance on figurative language. This serves as a reminder that the narrator, though lacking in formal education, is intelligent and perceptive, and it encapsulates the story’s basic view of art as something that should be intertwined with ordinary day-to-day existence.