Discussion questions: “Everyday Use”

Dee leaves home, one that apparently she never really liked, and returns home for her visit dramatically changed. She has a new name, a new look, even a new sense of culture and heritage. If Dee were the protagonist of this story, we might be expected to celebrate these changes and to applaud her character’s growth. However, Walker presents Dee/Wangero to us through Mama’s eyes, which makes it a bit more complicated. What is the nature of Dee’s “education,” and what if anything has she really learned? What does Walker intend us to think and feel about Dee’s changes, and what is the theme of the story?

Discussion questions: “The Lesson”

In “The Lesson,” Sylvia is our protagonist, the narrator, the central consciousness thorough whom we hear or experience the story. She is the focus of not only our attention, but of much of Miss Moore’s attention as well. The two are, at least in Sylvia’s version of events, opposed characters in some ways; in fact, Miss Moore is the antagonist in the story.* Explore Miss Moore in your discussion this week: Who is she? What do we know or what can we assume about her? What is her goal or purpose? And, for bonus points (Just kidding. Maybe.) who is she like, and how?

*Attached reading below for the lesson but you need to find a pdf copy of “everyday use” short story.