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Alice Walker Everyday Use Theme

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The short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker has various of themes to discover while reading. One main theme that appears in this story is racial identity. Racial identity as known as race is when a person is categorized into a group by what they look like. The main character Dee doesn't accept who she is and decided to change the way she was when she got sent to school in Augusta, GA. Her sister Maggie and her mother Mama are still the same way when Dee returned. "Proshansky and Newton stated that Africans in the United States who feel hatred toward their own racial group are to some degree expressing hatred for themselves as individuals"(Allen 57). Dee didn't like the way she grew up so she always wanted the fancier things. She didn't like the way Mama dress. Mama wore overalls all the time working hard. Slaves used to wear overalls and worked. Therefore, Mama still stuck on that …show more content…

Walker explains that Dee hair "stands straight up like the wool on a sheep", which symbolizes Dee has a mini afro because sheep's wool feels like an afro (Walker 4). Dee changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo means the person of stories. Wangero is an African name. It seems that she is trying to embrace her African heritage to get something she wants. She wants Mama to accept her and giver her wants she wants or to get answers from Mama. Dee arrived with a guy name Hakim-a barber. Alice Walker never mentioned his real name in the story. He is Muslim and when he came to greet Mama and Maggie he said "Asalamalakim, my mother and sister"(4). Mama mixed up his name and thought it was Asalamalakim. Asalamalakim means peace be with you. He was also trying to embrace his roots as well. He didn't eat the collards and pork. Muslims doesn't eat pork. Being together for a long period of time, they would start to pick up each other habits or

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Dee hated... “Being named after the people who oppress me” (318). Dee even changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo being who she wanted to be. She could be very ignorant when it came to things about herself and what she wanted. She does not comprehend that her sister does not have much and truly will require the coverlets. Wangero is unmindful all around; she comes off to her family as though she is superior to anything.

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