Everyday Use
Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is about a mother who has two daughters, one who has remained at home and appreciates their family heirlooms because of their connection to the home and their family, and another daughter who has become interested in the Black Nationalist movement and who looks at the same articles and appreciates them more for their aesthetic appeal than their deeper meaning. Through this story, Walker makes a larger statement about the Black Nationalist movement to which daughter Dee belongs. She claims to want to honor her African heritage by adopting a more ethnic sounding name and by holding on to items which have meaning to her history as a descendant of slaves. This is a peripheral connection to her heritage and has no true meaning. Dee desires of her family treasures in order to fit in with a group, not because she has any true feeling about her circumstances or the plight of the African-American community.
The Black Nationalist Movement began as a tangential occurrence to the Civil Rights Movement. While certain men like Martin Luther King, Jr. And Medger Evers were preaching equality and nonviolent resistance, there was another faction gaining support which advocated violent revolution against the white majority. Among other things, the Black Nationalists believed that the United States and most all European nations had essentially racist attitudes and that their governments only enforced these prejudicial views. The group demanded the continuation of segregation...
Many critics argued that the movement was really a mask for black supremacy.
When the story begins, the narrator is preparing for a visit from her daughter Dee who has been away at college. The second daughter, Maggie, is far more silent and less assuming than her sister. Throughout Dee's stay at Mama's house, she goes about trying to demand the family heirlooms which her mother has kept over the many years. When Dee makes her entrance, it is all about her visual impression. She is dressed in what is considered traditional African wear. Accompanying her is a man who Mama refers to as "Asalamalakim." This is a traditional Muslim greeting. Everything about this couple is concentrated on their appearances. She is dressed in traditional garb and even demands that her family refer to her by her newly adopted name, Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. The girl was named for her grandmother and for other family members who were named Dee. Yet, she does not see this name as having any meaning and changes it to what her peers say is respecting her African heritage. Dee does not have any true affinity for her culture. The only things that mater are the opinions of her peers and the appearances.
Just as Dee gives up her family name for the more Africanized Wangero, so too many college students and African-American people of the '60s and '70s adopted names that found their origin in African culture. It was part of the indoctrination into the group that to be accepted,…
