"Everyday Use" - Alice Walker

The narrator of  "Everyday Use" reveals many things about herself throughout the short story. Sometimes  direct characterization is used, and other times indirect characterization is used. The narrator came right out and said, "I never had an education myself" (Walker). This is a form of direct characterization which the author uses to clearly display a detail about the narrator. Related to the detail about being uneducated, I was really confused about a narrator being uneducated. I understand that the speaker and author are not the same person, but it is difficult to think that someone writing a story with flawless grammar never had an education. This detail just made it a little difficult to understand the character in my opinion because I would not expect an uneducated farm woman to be writing or telling such a well constructed story. In addition to the direct characterization, some indirect characterization is present.  The race of the narrator is revealed through details scattered throughout the story. An example of such indirect characterization is when Dee (Wangero) says that she does not want to have a name that was given to her ancestors from the slave masters. From this detail, it is pretty easy to tell that the narrator and her children are African Americans. Given this detail, it gives the reader a perspective from which to view the story as one of a black family probably living in the south.