By simply concentrating on connecting with their African heritage many failed to understand that their parents and their ancestors who lived on the American continent in general created a culture of their own that entailed elements belonging both to the African continent and to the American one.
Most of the short story is about how Dee struggles to find her personal identity by turning to cultural values. While Dee is more concerned with displaying her cultural values and preserving them, Mama and Maggie actually live through their traditions directly. They do not need to pose in individuals obsessed with their background in order to actually understand it. Their ability to preserve thinking present in their ancestors compensates for their lack of knowledge and is more important than Dee's efforts to put across pretentious attitudes. It is not necessarily that these characters are unwilling to accept their African roots, as they actually feel that it would be more important for them to focus on ideas that can actually reflect positively on them.
The quilts play a particularly important role in the story, taking into account that they contain parts of dresses belonging to Dee's predecessors and that they even hold a piece of the uniform her great-grandfather wore during the Civil War. "The visitor rightly recognizes the quilts as part of her fragile heritage, but she fails to see the extent to which she herself has traduced that heritage." (Cowart)
All things considered, Walker puts across a story meant to influence readers to concentrate on getting a more complex understanding of their background in order to be able to truly appreciate their heritage. Dee's behavior is certainly praiseworthy, but it is actually sad that she fails to comprehend the complete nature of her background.
Annotated Bibliography:
Cowart, David, "Heritage and Deracination in Walker's "Everyday...
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
Dee is not interested in family history; she is interested in making an artistic statement. The discussion of the butter churn is merely a prelude to the big event over the quilts. The quilts are sewn together of fabrics from ancestors' clothing. This association makes them important reminders of family to Maggie and Mama. However, these two see the practical or everyday value of the items as well. Mama intends
Alice Walker The Image of the Quilt: Alice Walker's the Color Purple and "Everyday Use" What makes us who we are? A large part of our current lives are derived from the lives of those who came before us. Our family traditions and heritages are an important part of ourselves. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple and "Everyday Use," cloth, quilts, and the act of sewing are highlighted as a way
Instead, Wangero continues to only see that her name is a reminder that African-Americans were denied their authentic names. "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me" (53). Walker is not by any means condemning the Black Power movement when she challenges Wangero's viewpoint. Instead, she is questioning that part of this movement that does not acknowledge and, more importantly, respect the scores of
However what the older generation knew about the worth of heritage had somehow escaped the youth. The elders felt that adoption of culture and heritage made more sense when it had an impact on a person's way of thinking and their lifestyle. Dee, with a more modern approach towards heritage, felt an identity based on it could be adopted with the adoption of 'things' connected with her ancestors' culture. For
'" (Walker, 236) The making of the quilts is another symbol for the way in which the daughter and the mother differ in their views of tradition. The quilt is also strongly associated with the African-American tradition and therefore all the more significant. While the mother and Maggie are capable of actually making the quilts, Dee or Wangero is obsessed with having them and possessing them as a symbol of her
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