Summaries of Short Stories

Everyday Use A family is briefly, and awkwardly, reunited when Dee visits home after being sent away to school. She is happy to see Mama and her sister Maggie, but instead of a heart-felt family reunion it feels more like a misguided show-and-tell of African heritage. Dee has brought her Muslim boyfriend with her, and soon inform her mother that her name has been changed to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, in protest of her oppressors. Mama informs her that “Dee” is a family name that traces back several generations. Dee also asks to have things relating to her heritage, a butter churn top and some handmade quilts, but she does not want to use them for anything other than decoration. Mama gives Dee the butter churn top, but there is some hostility when Mama reveals that the quilts have been promised to her sister Maggie. When Dee leaves with her boyfriend, she tells Mama and Maggie that they do not understand their heritage, which is ironic considering that they were the ones who experienced it.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find A family goes on a road trip, destined for Florida. Before setting out, they bicker about going somewhere else due to the presence of an escaped convict called “The Misfit.” The grandmother is an interesting character and chooses to wear a hat on the trip in case there is an accident. She wants to be sure whomever comes upon the scene of the accident knows that she was a “lady.” The grandmother also has an interesting use of the word “good.” She calls Red Sammy a “good man” for letting some men buy gasoline on credit, suggesting that she associates “good men” with gullibility and blind faith. Later in the story, she causes the family to make a wrong turn because she misremember the location of a plantation house she wanted to visit. When she realizes her mistake, she jerks her knee, ultimately causing the car to crash. She does not tell anyone about her mistake. The Misfit shows up and begins killing the family because the grandmother recognized