Mom's unique phrases and observations give everyday use a sense of realism. Alice Walker gives Mama the power to narrate and control the use of language to convey her story and thoughts in her own way. Mother uses her unique descriptive language to explain butter churning and cheese making (Dee wants to take her mother's "bran" and "churn"), which adds realism to the story. These everyday objects demonstrate the self-sufficient life of a rural farming family and the endless cycles of work that each family member faces. The story focuses on the disappointment Mom feels in both of her daughters and the tension that arises when Dee forces her to make a difficult choice about who will receive the quilts, but the tragedy is undercut by Mom's lively cadences and distinctive narrative style . The mother makes the language her own. For example, she refers to her husband carving benches when the family could not “effort” (rather than “afford”) to buy chairs, and describes the milk in the churn as “crab” (sour). Walker uses humor as a way to lighten the story's dark observations, as in the subtle comedy brought on by Mom's reaction to Dee and Hakim's hard-to-pronounce names. Mom eventually gives up the name Hakim-a-barber and secretly addresses him as what she thinks he sounds like: a barber.