Everyday Use is told from the perspective ofMama. As the story begins, she hesitantly awaits the return of her eldest daughterDee. Mama stands near her withdrawn and physically scarred younger daughterMaggie. As they await Dee's return, Mama narrators how she hasn't heard from Dee for over 5 years. While Dee is intelligent and driven, we get the clear sense that her accomplishments have come at the expense of her mother and little sister.
Dee is incredibly judgmental and naive about Mama and Maggie's lives. She insists that Mama and Maggie "choose" to live where they do. While they may accept their fate, Maggie and Mama did not choose the life they were born into. Though Dee has access to changing times, not everyone born in the poor, rural black South is able to craft a new life and identity out of sheer will - and the financial help from Mama and her church. In return for her family's generosity, Dee patronized them with stories of other people's lives and more "civilized." Dee used her education as a weapon against her own family. The irony of Dee rebuking her own heritage in exchange for her imagined African identity is what shapes the rest of the story. She photographs her family home as an archaeologist would for National Geographic. Dee makes sure she gets a picture of Mama, the old house, and Maggie cowering in the corner. Both Mama and Maggie are objectified and exploited in these photos, like actors in costume...
