Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

In Alice Walker’s anthologized short story “Everyday Use” published in 1973, the author illustrates categories of women that evolved after the second World War. She uses her character Dee to describe the cultural transitions African American women experienced as they began to focus primarily on individuality and collective identities. Dee denies any form of her traditional heritage and seeks to value her African background differently than the other characters. Additionally, she does not consider the impacts of her behavior on her peers, but selfishly attempts to obtain any materialistic item that she desires. Walker characterizes this antagonist to reflect elements of the modernist literary period, which seeks to promote individuality and alter tradition.

Hesitation was no part of her nature” (Walker 922). This characteristic is contrasted with Mama Johnson’s personality traits, as she represents devotion to others rather than herself. Unlike Dee, she wonders “who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye?” (Walker 922). Dee denies all of her mother’s feelings of intimidation and seeks to find her individuality by pretending to boldly confront any situation as if she were not a minority. She does not associate herself with any of her immediate ancestors and attempts to define her identity without genetic influences. Similarly, African American women in the Civil Rights Movement attempted to define themselves as individuals without reflecting on their past or ancestry. Many activists promoted ideas of progression, but failed admire the homogeneousness that came along with African American history. While the literary period of modernism did promote individuality, it also disrupted the unifying period after World War Two, which resulted in a division in