Question

What is the meaning of this excerpt from "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker? In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. But of course all this does not show on television. I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. My hair glistens in the hot bright lights. Johnny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.

Answer 1

B) Dee is ashamed of how her mother looks and acts.

At the beginning of this excerpt we read a description of a woman who exhibits many characteristics/qualities of a man, of an outdoorsy type, and overweight woman as can be determined by how she describes herself as a woman with “man-working hands,” one who “can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man,” and whose fat “keeps [her] hot in zero weather.” These are all attributes of which her daughter is ashamed because she says that on television she is not like this; she is the way her “daughter would want [her] to be” with less weight, lighter skin, and smooth/fair skin and hair.

Answer 2

The choices are:
A) Dee and her mother look and act exactly alike.
B) Dee is ashamed of how her mother looks and acts.
C) The mother wishes that she looked and acted like Dee.
D) Dee is proud of her mother’s capabilities.
E) Dee wishes to be exactly like her mother.

The correct answer is B.