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¶ … Everyday Use" By Alice Walker
Family tradition and heritage means different things for the main characters in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker. For Dee (Wangero), heritage is an intellectual exercise, like something to be proud of and displayed so as to show off to others how important you are. But for Maggie and Mama, heritage is that which has been part of the family. For instance, Dee's name was given her by her aunt, who in turn was named after their grandmother and she after hers, and so on. It was a generational name that should have held some traditional significance for Dee -- and Mama points this out, having an actual sense of her family's history and heritage. But Dee is not interested in that heritage: she wants to trumpet her African heritage so she changes her name to signify that she has no relation the slave culture that oppressed her people and gave them the name "Dee" in the first place, so she believes. Dee's sense of heritage is thus politicized and polemical: it is ideological rather than practical, familial, and familiar. It is rooted in pride and hatred -- but it is also innocent in a way because...
In fact, it makes Maggie smile -- and Maggie actually appreciates her heritage -- her memory of her grandmother, for instance -- in a way that Dee cannot. Maggie, in this sense, is more mature than her sister.
The meaning of the objects in the story (the butter churn and the quilts) tell us about the Johnson family: they tell us that family is important, that there is a bond between the generations and respect and love for their memories. The grandmother and aunt taught Maggie how to quilt. The butter churn was carved by an uncle. They are important because the prompt memories of the lost loved ones, but also because they were physically connected to the loved ones, too: they belonged to them and are therefore simply special. There is, through the object, a connection of kinship. This is deeply appreciated by Mama and Maggie, but by Dee only superficially.
Dee's appreciation for her heritage is genuine in a way: she wants to display it after all. But she also does not understand it the way that Maggie and Mama do. For her, heritage is…
Works Cited
Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use."
Cultural Impacts in Everyday Use The objective of this study is to examine the work of Alice Walker entitled "Everyday Use" and the how culture impacts values and material objects and the manner in which culture in reality impacts people and their lifestyle. The work of Alice Walker entitled "Everyday Use" examines the connotations of culture on material objects. The story involves a woman named Dee who is disgusted with what she
After reading the short story, “Everyday Use”, one can get the impression that educational backgrounds can affect the way an individual will grow up. The narrator’s education did not go far because in second grade, because her school closed. Therefore, she grew up working instead of learning to be able to take care of herself and her children. On the other hand, her daughter, Dee, grew up with education and went
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Walker's "Everyday Use" examines a generation clash a family. What Dee (Wangero) implies mother sister " understand" "heritage"? Why suddenly important Dee? Part II: O'Brien's "Going After Cacciato" focuses experience Paul Berlin Vietnam War. Walker's "Everyday Use" Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" depicts the two very different life paths of the daughters of the main character. The mother's older daughter Dee is a very ambitious young woman, and the mother notes
Alice Walker There are different expressions and types of culture, and culture can mean different things to various people who are a part of the same culture. This truth is demonstrated poignantly in Alice Walker's short story entitled "Everyday Things." In this tale, there is a generation and culture clash between the worldly aspirations and ambitions of Dee, and the normal, everyday ambitions of her mother and her sister Maggie.
This fact and the preceding quotation proves that Maggie views heritage as an interactive process, unlike the viewpoint of her sister. The fact that Maggie's mother ultimately gives her the quilts alludes to the fact that she shares this belief as well. The conclusion of this story in which Maggie's mother gives her the valued quilts appears to suggest that the author believes that the more interactive application of heritage,