Sometimes throughout different trials of life, some people tend struggle with their own identity and who they really are because of their social status. “We know what we are, but not what we may be” was once stated by William Shakespeare. Some people tend to thrive on others ideas or even sometimes tend to live what they have once dreamed of through other people. In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker the author explores the way your struggle of identity can be caused by your social status. Throughout this short story, Mama struggles with her identity while Maggie is ashamed of her social status. As Mama, the main character struggles with her own identity because of her social class. “I never had an education. After second grade the school was closed down” (1335). Through this quote Mama struggles with her own identity because she wishes that she could be like Dee and have had an education. Mama knows that through her social status as a young child wasn’t able to have an education. “She wrote me once, that no matter where we ‘choose’ to live, she will manage to come and see is. But she will never bring her friends” (1336). As Mama reads this letter she doesn’t get upset that her daughter is embarrassed of her family but she is quite happy that she has raised her daughter and is able to live her dream of being well educated through her daughter because she simply knows how to write a letter. As for Dee, she shows that she doesn’t want others to know her social status and where she comes from. “A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she’d made from an old suit somebody gave me” (1336). The author throws in that she is graduating from high school because she wants the readers to know that mama is proud that her daughter graduates from high school and also to simply say that mama is successful in a way because she can say her daughter