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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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When it comes to conflict she wants everyone to be happy. Giving Dee her grandma’s quilts stopped a conflict. She knew this would make Dee happy.

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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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This starts by the inclination Dee has to approach the world without fear. She views the world as a white woman, back then, rather than an African American woman like her mother and sister-timid and afraid. She then comes back from getting educated and allows this to cloud her judgement and think that she is above those who aren’t educated. She continues this attitude all the way to the end of her visit where she tells her mother that she doesn’t understand her heritage and then continues on condescending to her sister, “’You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us.

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Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” illustrates Dee’s struggle for identity by placing her quest for a new identity against her family’s desire for maintaining culture and heritage. In the beginning, the narrator, who is the mother of Dee, mentions some details about Dee; how she “...wanted nice things… She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts… At sixteen, she had a style of her own: and (she) knew what style was.” Providing evidence to the thesis, she was obviously trying exceptionally hard to find for herself a sense of identity. She wanted items her family couldn’t afford, so she worked hard to gain these, and she found a sense of identity from them, but it also pushed her farther away from her family.

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636 Words | 3 Pages

Mama wanted nothing but the best for her; she did everything in her power to get her to college because she wanted her to have a better life than she did. However, Dee used her education against Mama and Maggie in efforts to present her culture in a “better” way. Changing her name to Wangero because her birth name “Dee”, as she informed them “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people oppress me” (Walker 27). In contrast, Mama and Maggie never changed the way they dressed “African descent” or change their names to portray their true

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983 Words | 4 Pages

The point of view in the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker plays a big part. Throughout the story, one of Mama’s daughters came to visit. The way Mama and Maggie see her is not in a very pleasant way. In fact, they are scared to tell her no when it comes to anything. From Mama’s perspective Dee seems like this rude, stuck up, spoiled child because she had the opportunity to go out and expand her education, while Mama and Maggie continued to live their lives on the farm.

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1258 Words | 6 Pages

The character Dee represented in Walker 's story shows how easily one can completely depersonalize heritage while showing mannerisms of condescending nature. Dee’s name was in fact passed down from her grandmother and given to her as a symbol of respect for family and fondness for their grandmother. Dee completely oblivious to the nature of her given name simply changes it to what she believes is her authentic African name. “No, Mama,” she says, “Not Dee; Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!”(492). Displaying the name in boastful temperament and parading it in front of her mother and sister.

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In the beginning of the story the narrator who is the mom is waiting for her daughter named dee. She waits in the garden with Maggie. She knows that Maggie and dee do not get along. She imagines a big nice family reunion in her head.

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Dee has always been ashamed of her African culture and family. Dee would prefer that her mother and sister look different and that her home would be nicer. Her mother always knew how Dee felt about her, “My daughter would want me to be a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. But that is a mistake” (par. 6). Dee has returned from college to visit her family, but with a different attitude.

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Ms. Johnson didn't have an education, yet she knew the value of the quilts and she didn’t let a few words from Dee change her decision of giving the quilts to Maggie. Dee leaves her mother’s house quite upset and tells her sister, “You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it” (Walker 12).

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Everyone defines and identifies themselves in different ways. Whether it’s by our names, our religion, or our sexuality, we all have something different that make us unique and that we identify ourselves as. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use,” an African American woman tells the story of her daughter Dee’s long awaited visit. Upon her arrival the mother and her other daughter, Maggie, discover some drastic changes in Dee: she has changed her name to Wangero, she has also arrived with a mysterious man who calls himself Asalamalakim, and has adopted an African style of dress; all of this in an effort to depict what she sees as her heritage. During the course of her visit, Dee tries to take several items important to her family’s heritage.

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1180 Words | 5 Pages

The idea of human nature can be seen throughout the beginning of time. It has always been with humans. Humans have naturally acquired different traits of human nature by going through historical events by illustrating the different ways they act in situations. Historical events such as slavery greatly demonstrate what people have good or evil human nature. That is the debate.

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712 Words | 3 Pages

Alice Walker wrote what Mama said about Dee or Wangero, “Dee wanted nice things.” Mama describes Dee as a lavish person who is only interested in herself and her fulfilling’s. Dee had changed her name to show that she is not accepting that a “white person” named her ancestors in way, so it can be passed down. Walker describes Mama as someone who is satisfied with what they have. “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon,” Walker demonstrates how Mama is pleased with nature where her life takes place in.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

She didn’t like her sister Maggie she also doesn’t like her mom allot and she didn’t like their house. From the main changes Dee made was changing her name. “No mama, she says not Dee, wangero Leewanik kemanjo “(Walker, 318, 25). She also brought her friend with her his name is Hakim-a-barber.

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1283 Words | 6 Pages

She had hated the house that much” (167). This flashback that Mama shares with the reader provides insight to the personalities of her daughters. Mama tells the reader how Dee used to feel

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