Catherine H. answered • 05/28/20
Experienced English Tutor Specializing in College Essay Writing Skills
This is a famous quotation from Alice Walker's magnificent story "Everyday Use," and it is significant because it highlights the startling differences between Dee and the mother and sister she left behind to pursue her education. When Mama says that Dee "used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice," this illiterate mother emphasizes how her educated daughter imposes the fruits of literature upon her and her daughter Maggie in a condescending way. Literacy is a gift Mama sacrificed to give to Dee when she and her church raised money to send her to boarding school, separating Dee from Mama and Maggie and raising her to a very different educational and socioeconomic status than her family of origin. When Mama later declares that Dee "burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know," she depicts Dee's act of reading as almost a violent act; Dee forces an awareness and reminder of a sophisticated and cultured world far beyond the rural poverty of Mama's farm. Dee's reading reflects a larger world that Mama and Maggie will never know, and the anger in Mama's voice stems from her bitter recognition of the broad divide between herself and Dee, who even changes her name to distance herself from her family.
