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What did alice walker think about heritage
Alice Walker's views on heritage
Alice Walker's views on heritage
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Heritage in Everyday Use Heritage seems to play a huge role and tells the reader about a person or an individual family. As the story goes on the reader will notice what heritage really means or how it could be portrayed as. Heritage is also used as symbolism in the story between Dee and Maggie. The reader will notice a difference between the two characters, that one will take pride in their family’s background and the other character will find it to be embarrassing because of the environment they are set in. In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use,” despite the positive Dee has gained from an education and time spent in the outside world, she continues to lack the understanding of her own heritage and is embarrassed to embrace it. Even though Dee’s education is a positive, she loses sight of what she has in her original hometown. She is well educated and represents a modern generation, although this is where she portrays the freedom and decides to leave her rural home along with starting a new life style. In a way she throws away her original ways of life while mama still continues to represent the older generation. Walker expresses how Wangero’s “preservationism is hopelessly selfish and misguided,” (Walker,1994). …show more content…
On the other hand, Wangero (Dee) seemed to take offense to the whole situation but little does she know that she is the one who brought it upon herself. She is at fault for her own actions and missing out on her old generation roots, where it all began. If she thought twice and didn’t make things about herself and what she needed, there could have been a possibility of sharing the family quilts. Instead she brought the negativity and became selfish because she thought she was better than her own mother and sister. She thought she had more than them but reality Mama and Maggie had everything they ever needed, which was each
To begin with, in Walker's Everyday Use, the conflict is a result of clashing cultural values and of cultural point-of-view. Dee, who has adopted the Islamic culture and name the Wangero, returns to her African-American family for a reunion. While there, she asks that a pair of quilts from her deceased grandmother be given to her, not her sister, Maggie. Dee claims that her sister will ruin them through "everyday use." In fact, she charges during a discussion, "[Maggie would] probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use" (89). To these charges, her mother, the story's narrator, says, "I reckon she would [use the quilts daily] ... God knows I've been saving (the quilts) for long enough with no body using 'em. I hope she will" (89). Dee counters by saying, "You just don't understand ... your heritage" (90). She charges that her mother does not understand her heritage and therefore should give the quilts to her since she will preserve them. This conflict...
In Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use,” symbolism, allegory, and myth stand out when thinking about the characters, setting, and conflict in the story. The conflict is between the mother and her two daughters (Maggie and Dee). There is also the conflict between the family’s heritage (symbolized by the quilt, bench, and butter chum) and their different ways of life. Dee chose a new African name, moved to the city, and adopted a new way of life while Maggie and her mother have stay behind. The quilt (the most important symbol) represents the family’s heritage in that it is made of scraps of clothing worn by generations of family members. The quilt has been sewn by family hands and used on family beds. It has seen history and is history. Maggie and her mother see that that history is alive but Dee thinks it is as dead as her name. Dee does not see that name as part of her heritage. By analyzing these symbols, a number of possibilities for a theme can be seen. Walker could be suggesting that to understand the African-American heritage, readers have to include the present as well as the past. However, the theme could be that poverty and a lack of sophistication and education cannot be equated with ignorance. Lastly, she could be telling her readers that dignity or self-respect rise from and are virtually connected to one’s entire heritage- not just a selected part of it.
Throughout the story really stresses the importance of heritage and suggests different ways to view one's heritage. Anyone could have his/her own way to view his/her heritage as Dee and Maggie did. One might value the attachment to one's ancestors via the heritage more than the heritage itself, and one might think the other way. Walker seems to be recommending her preferred way to view the heritage, which was Maggie's view on heritage. Walker tells the reader that they can pursue the connections to their ancestors by accepting and preserving their heritage in proper way, and it is more important to keep being connected to the ancestors than to keep the heritage in better shape.
So much so, that she had gone home from college to try to get some old family belongings to put on “display” to try to keep the history alive. Unlike Maggie, Dee didn’t care much of the future, she just cared about the past and taking all sentimental family heirlooms. Dee being so caught up in the past, even changes her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. When Dee first mentions the name change Mama is caught off guard. Mama was confused by this statement and asked, "What happened to ‘Dee’ "(Walker 5). Dee was trying to be polite but she came off extremely blunt by saying "She's dead, I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me" (Walker 5). Dee’s Name had been passed down from generation to generation, if that doesn’t scream family heritage I don’t know what would. Maggie wasn’t the smartest but she sure knew what she had to do to keep the family tradition going. Maggie was in love and had her whole life ahead of her. Therefore, thinking about the future, she knew having kids one day, would keep the tradition alive. After Mama figured out which child really did value the family heritage, everything started to change for the
Dee is shallow and manipulative. Not only does her education separate her from her family identity and heritage, it prevents her from bonding with her mother and sister. If Dee could only push her arrogance aside, she would be able to develop a deep connection with her family. While connecting with her family, Dee would also develop a deeper understanding of her heritage. Maggie and Mama did not give in to the “whim of an outside world that doesn’t really have much to do with them” (Farrell par.1). In the attempt to “fit” in, Dee has become self-centered, and demanding with her very own family; to the extent of intimidation, and
Cultural capitalism is having assets that give an individual social mobility (Szeman & Kaposy 88). Such as, with knowledge and/or education, embody speech and personality and objectified: one’s belongings and/or clothing. Through the rise of the Civil Rights Era, Dee becomes more aware of the culture she came from through her surroundings and begins to “embrace” it. She visits Mama’s house to collect some the ancestral quilts in which she denied before. Dee attempts to get more in touch with her African roots by going as far as changing her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. When arriving at her mother’s house she shared the news of the name change. When Mama quickly questions her, “what happened to Dee?”, Wangero exclaims, “she is dead” (Walker 924). Wangero (Dee) goes the extra mile to her name to make a statement to those around her and becomes noticeable becomes Afrocentric. Mama explains to Wangero the deep family meaning to her name, Dee she nullifies her mother’s answer and explains to her that the name “Dee” originates from slaves given by white slave owners. In the process of Dee Wangero’s transformation to her “deep roots”, she dating an African American Muslim named Hakim-a-barber. With Dee Wangero changing her name and reclaiming her culture she offends her mother through the process but little does she know she is hurting her
Cowart illustrates how "this house represents more than a failed poverty...the fire is the American past, a conflagration from which assorted survivors stumble forward covered like Maggie with scars of the body or like Dee Wangero with scars of the soul"(23). Wangero makes it evident that she hates her past heritage and throughout the story it is even questioned if she burned the house herself. It is something she knows would scar her in society so she hides where she came from inside of her. In "Everyday Use" Mama tells that as the house burned down she wanted to ask Dee, "why don't you do a dance around the ashes... she had hated the house that much" (Walker 162). The burning of the house to Dee represents the burning up of her heritage. She escaped from this fire without any scars externally, just as she escaped from the societal restrictions of being an African American. However, her soul was scarred. Dee can deny her past all she wants and try to put it behind her, but the fact that she comes from an African American heritage will always have a restricting hold on her
Later, Mama relates, “She wrote me once that no matter where we ‘choose’ to live, she will manage to come see us” (462). Mama is pointing out that Dee sees herself as belonging to a higher social and intellectual class than Mama and Maggie.
Dee is unappreciative and disrespectful to her own mother and eventually, as with nearly everything; enough is enough and Mama stood up for herself, completely transforming herself as a character. It is necessary in life to treat others the way that you would like to be treated. This seems to be a saying that Mama lived by, but her daughter didn’t reciprocate back to her. “Everyday Use” teaches the reader many lessons of the importance of a family and how easily individuals could be shaped by the world around
Regretfully, though readers can see how Mama has had a difficult time in being a single mother and raising two daughters, Dee, the oldest daughter, refuses to acknowledge this. For she instead hold the misconception that heritage is simply material or rather artificial and does not lie in ones heart. However, from Mama’s narrations, readers are aware that this cultural tradition does lie within ones heart, especially those of Mama’s and Maggie’s, and that it is the pure foundation over any external definition.
Another reason I had feelings of anger for the character Dee, was that she was uneducated. Not the usual education, such as in college, because she had that, but the education of her heritage, or past. The second statement to her mother was when her mother says "Dee", Dee replied saying her new name Wangero, followed by the statement that Dee is dead and that she could no longer bear the name of the people that oppress her. At no point during the story was Dee oppressed or even mentioned being oppressed in the past. Then she tries to track back where her name came from, to show her mother it was a slave name or something along those lines. Her mother tracked it back as far as she could remember and no such thing was pointed out. To move on to another situation where Dee made herself look foolish and uneducated is, when they are leaving, she tells her mother that she just doesn't understand.
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," is a story about a poor, African-American family and a conflict about the word "heritage." In this short story, the word "heritage" has two meanings. One meaning for the word "heritage" represents family items, thoughts, and traditions passed down through the years. The other meaning for the word "heritage" represents the African-American culture.
When Dee returns and announces that she would be using a new name in order to reflect her African heritage her Mom becomes annoyed and starts to find her attitude ridiculous. After Dee tells her Mom that she no longer goes by Dee, Mom replies, “What happened to ‘Dee’?”(488). The fact the Mom asks about these changes exemplifies this annoyance she has with Dee. When Dee explains she changed her name because she’s oppressed her Mom shows that she finds the attitude ridiculous by pointing out it is a family tradition spanning more than 4 generations. When Dee starts asking to have the items that her Mom and Maggie need for everyday use with the intent to appreciate it as art, it only furthers how much she irritates her Mom. Dee had been offered one of the quilts before she went to college Dee thought they were, “old-fashioned, out of style.”(490). It’s after Maggie agrees to give Dee the quilts that her Mom realizes that she has always given Dee everything she wanted even at Maggie’s expense. Mother had an epiphany about how to handle the situation, shown when she says, “Something hit me on top of the head”, “just like when I’m in church and the spirit of God touches me”(492). Dee’s attitude had annoyed the Mom so much she had this realization. For once the Mom decides to stand up against
Alice Walker used symbolism to convey the importance of heritage in her short story "Everyday Use," by using the sisters' actions, family items, and tradition. Dee does not appreciate her heritage like her sister and mother. She does not see the importance of family traditions. The churn top, the bench with her ancestor's rump prints, the butter dish, and the quilts are all symbols of their heritage. Dee is only interested in the items because they make great decorations. Heritage is very important factor in a person's life. Everyone should learn to appreciate their family history.
In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the message about the preservation of heritage, specifically African-American heritage, is very clear. It is obvious that Walker believes that a person's heritage should be a living, dynamic part of the culture from which it arose and not a frozen timepiece only to be observed from a distance. There are two main approaches to heritage preservation depicted by the characters in this story. The narrator, a middle-aged African-American woman, and her youngest daughter Maggie, are in agreement with Walker. To them, their family heritage is everything around them that is involved in their everyday lives and everything that was involved in the lives of their ancestors. To Dee, the narrator's oldest daughter, heritage is the past - something to frame or hang on the wall, a mere artistic, aesthetic reminder of her family history. Walker depicts Dee's view of family heritage as being one of confusion and lack of understanding.