2. Introducing the Story Literary Focus: Determining Characters’ Traits Reading Skills: Making Inferences About Characters Everyday Use by Alice Walker Feature Menu

3. Everyday Use by Alice Walker

4. Everyday Use Introducing the Story Made by hand, the craft object bears the fingerprints, real or metaphorical, of the person who fashioned it.... Made by hand, the craft object is made for hands. Not only can we see it, we can also finger it, feel it. Octavio Paz

5. As you read “Everyday Use,” learn all you can about the character traits of Mama, Dee, Maggie, and Hakim-a-barber. Pay attention to [End of Section] Everyday Use Literary Focus: Determining Characters’ Traits what they think and feel what other characters say about them how they look what they say and do

6. As you read a story, you make inferences, intelligent guesses based on evidence in the story and your own prior knowledge. Everyday Use Reading Skills: Making Inferences About Characters Prior Knowledge—what you already know about life, people, and storytelling Evidence from Story—events, setting, descriptions, and so on + = Inference (educated guess)

7. When you make inferences about characters, you’ll base many of your guesses on what the characters say and do. Everyday Use Reading Skills: Making Inferences About Characters [End of Section] At the beginning of “Everyday Use,” the narrator waits in her front yard for someone to arrive. The narrator comments that she and Maggie cleaned the yard the day before. Based on this information, what can you infer about the narrator? about Maggie? What are their feelings about the upcoming visit?

8. Quilting is an American folk art. In the South, quilts have a rich tradition influenced by African textile designs and historic American patterns. Quilts are often passed down in families for generations. Everyday Use Background [End of Section]

9. Quickwrite

10. Everyday Use Quickwrite [End of Section] Make the Connection “Everyday Use” takes place in the rural South during the 1960s, when values and ways of life were changing rapidly. The story concerns traditions and, in particular, some family heirlooms. Many families have traditions or heirlooms that are handed down to the younger generation. Do you have any in your family? Jot down your feelings about maintaining family traditions.

11. Vocabulary

12. Previewing the Vocabulary sidle v.: move sideways, especially in a shy or sneaky manner. furtive adj.: acting as if trying not to be seen. Furtive also means “done secretly.” cowering v. used as adj.: drawing back or huddling in fear. oppress v.: persecute; keep down by unjust use of power. Everyday Use Vocabulary

13. Previewing the Vocabulary doctrines n.: principles; teachings; beliefs. rifling v. used as n.: searching thoroughly or in a rough manner. Everyday Use Vocabulary

14. 1.The _________ detective began _________ through the suspect’s belongings. 2.We are studying the _________ of the U.S. Constitution. 3.The toddler, who had been _________ behind his mother, eventually tried to _________ up to the dog. Vocabulary Activity Fill in the blanks with the correct Word Bank words. doctrines sidleriflingcowering furtive [End of Section] furtiverifling doctrines cowering sidle Everyday Use Vocabulary

15. Meet the Writer

16. Alice Walker is an essayist, poet, and fiction writer who has been praised for her mastery of dialect and her ability to capture life in the rural South. She has won many awards for her works, including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the American Book Award, both for her novel The Color Purple. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, in 1944, Alice Walker was the youngest of eight children. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother worked as a maid. Everyday Use Meet the Writer [End of Section] More About the Writer