Summary

"Everyday Use" begins with a mother, Ms. Johnson and her daughter, Maggie, waiting for her sister, Dee. They have obviously prepared the yard very carefully waiting for her arrival. They have perhaps raked the clay ground in preparation for comfortably sitting down in the yard together and staring up at the elm tree.

Once upon a time, there was a fire and Maggie was burned very badly. There are still scars up and down her arms and legs. Dee, her sister, fared better. It was as though she had then, as she perhaps has now, a kind of charmed life. Whereas the world turned to Maggie and always said, "No," it would never do that to Dee.

The mother has a recurring daydream. Perhaps it has been suggested by those talk shows where a successful, grown-up child sees parents he or...