Vocabulary in Everyday Use

A fenced field of grass where livestock graze; here it refers to the open yard around the family's home, described as an extended outdoor living space that the narrator keeps clean and tidy.

The small intestines of a pig, cleaned and cooked as a traditional Southern soul-food dish; a marker of the family's rural, working-class Black heritage.

A strongly alkaline solution made from wood ash and water, historically used to make soap or to cure certain foods; here associated with the family's hand-made domestic traditions.

The wooden stick with a paddle at the end that is plunged up and down inside a butter churn to turn cream into butter; a specific piece of old-fashioned kitchen equipment central to the story's debate about heritage.

A container, traditionally made of wood or ceramic, in which cream is agitated with a dasher to make butter; in this story it is a handmade family heirloom.

Simple, handmade wooden seats without backs, crafted by a family member because they could not afford store-bought chairs; used here as symbols of practical, lived heritage.

Bed coverings stitched together from scraps of old clothing and fabric by hand; in this story they are the central disputed heirlooms, representing the family's living history versus decorative display.

So valuable — emotionally or historically — that no money amount can measure it; used here to describe handmade heirlooms whose worth comes from family memory, not the market.

A thin, stiff, sheer cotton fabric, often used for decorative clothing; its appearance here signals Dee's fashionable, showy dress that contrasts with her family's plain rural life.

To move sideways or edge along cautiously, often to avoid drawing attention; used to describe a character's hesitant, self-conscious way of approaching or positioning herself.

Done in a secretive, sneaky way, as if trying not to be noticed; describes a character's quick, hidden glances or movements that reveal discomfort or hidden intention.

A rounded, full hairstyle in which natural hair is allowed to grow out in a large, spherical shape; in the 1970s context of this story it is a symbol of Black cultural pride and political identity.

Plain or unattractive in appearance; used here without cruelty but honestly, as the narrator describes her own or another character's looks in straightforward, unsentimental terms.

Burned or damaged by very hot liquid or steam; here it refers to the fire that injured one of the characters, leaving lasting physical and psychological scars.

The solid waste dropped by cattle; mentioned as part of the rural farmyard setting and the narrator's matter-of-fact relationship with hard physical farm life.

Used ironically here to contrast Dee's romanticized, performative idea of Black rural heritage with the mother's and Maggie's actual daily lived experience of poverty and hard work.

To keep people down through unjust use of power or authority; referenced in the context of Dee's newly adopted political consciousness and her rejection of names she associates with historical subjugation.

The raised platform where enslaved people were publicly sold during American slavery; invoked here as part of the family's deeper ancestral history tied to the quilts and their fabric scraps.