The narrator and protagonist is a working-class black woman from the American South; her surname is Johnson, but Walker provides her with no first name. At the time the story takes place, Mrs. Johnson has two adult daughters (Dee and Maggie) and is therefore likely middle-aged or perhaps slightly older. Although she never received more than a second-grade education, the wry and observant nature of her narration makes it clear she is both intelligent and level-headed. She is also hard-working, as well as physically and mentally resilient; she describes herself as “a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” who “can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (Paragraph 5), and who seems to have raised her daughters largely on her own (she mentions their father at one point, but it is unclear what happened to him). Mrs. Johnson’s strength of character is bolstered by a deep sense of personal and familial identity; while explaining the family history of the name “Dee,” she remarks, “I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches” (Paragraph 32).

However, even with this strong understanding of who she is and where she comes from, Mrs.