What’s Your Background? Alice Walker’s life as an African-American novelist and poet has led to many award winning short-stories and books. She was raised in the southern state of Georgia and her parents were sharecroppers. This taught her that being an African-American can have its rough times. After being shot by a BB gun when she was eight, Alice remained blinded in one eye. Her ailment caused her to seclude herself from other children her age. Alice’s feeling of being older than she was shows in her writing of the short story “Everyday Use”. One of the story’s main character’s, Maggie, is a direct relation