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Comparing Bharati Mukherjee's Two Ways To Belong In America

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“Heritage is something that your parents instill in you, your morals, your heart, mind and soul”. “Culture is something that changes over time and is passed down to the next generation and so on”, these two things should be something that is important to you. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” and Bharati Mukherjee’s personal essay, “Two ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee the comparison of Maggie and Mira show two women who hold on to their original culture while Bharati and Dee want another life. These stories make me wonder the same question. Why do the younger siblings appreciate their culture more? I’ve came to the conclusion that they both understand and admire their culture and understand the importance it has on them and their families unlike …show more content…

In “Two Ways to Belong in America” Mira sticks to the “pure culture marriage in the Mukherjee family” and marries an Indian student. She also does not want to become an American citizen. She “passionately clings to her Indian citizenship hoping to go home to India when she retires”, but when she finds out she has to become an American citizen to stay in America she becomes angered. Mira had already lived in America for 30 years, contributed to the field of pre-school education, and earned a degree. Even though she was not an American citizen she had still been invited to stay there because of her talent. Now she was being treated like an outsider instead of being welcomed. While in “Everyday Use” Dee looked at Maggie as someone who was stuck in their culture. Maggie didn’t hope for anything more than her simple life as an African American farmer. It’s not really the fact that she would have enjoyed another life, it’s the fact she was comfortable with her life and how it was already. She was already extremely shy so her country style heritage was the best way for her to

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Our culture helps to define who people are and is an extremely important part in people’s lives. Not all cultures are the same and most people grow up in different cultures. We can see this between Reuven and Danny. In Reuven and Danny’s culture, there are many differences and similarities in their religion, the dynamics of their family, and the customs and traditions they practice. First, religion is a major part of who we are and in Danny and Reuven’s cultures we can see similarities and differences.

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She makes note of how different the American culture is from Iran’s. These differences are even prominent from a very young age, as shown in how Dumas described her American school experience. One difficulty in assimilating into a new culture is the feeling of not fitting in. Dumas describes this feeling as “becom[ing] permanent foreigners, belonging neither here nor there” and “floating between worlds but never fully landing” (134). As she, or any other immigrant, spends more time in America, there is a point where they don’t feel they can identify with one distinct culture.

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In the story “Everyday Use” I find Maggie to be the most sympathetic. Maggie’s older sister, Dee, makes Maggie feel inferior to her. Maggie has burn scars and marks on her body, that makes her feel like she doesn’t look good. Dee always receive what she want and Dee is also smart. While Maggie isn’t so smart and doesn’t have the money or style to get what she wants.

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664 Words | 3 Pages

"She 'd probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use" (320). Dee thinks Maggie would be dumb to keep the quilts for “everyday use”. Also, she figured her family did not know their own heritage. Dee feels as though her sister should “make something of” herself. She states, “It’s really a new day for us” to show that Maggie needs to see a greater amount of the world.

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1052 Words | 5 Pages

Maggie is also oppressed by society and Dee, and, though to a further degree than her mother, her view of herself attacks her equality compared to the rest of the world. The subject is immediately introduced. The story begins with Maggie and her mother waiting for Dee. They waste their time in order to be available to Dee as soon as Dee

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611 Words | 3 Pages

Lessons from the Culture Every year we see family emigrate to other countries, and they face many challenges. The stories “Sweet, Sour, and Resentful”, by Firoozeh Dumas, and from “Fish Cheeks”, by Amy Tan, share similar cultures and really interesting stories. Also, both families from the essay share several challenges that they are face when they move to the United States of America. The two families share many similarities; however, they differ in to keeping their culture, showing openness, and teaching a lesson from their culture to others.

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1077 Words | 5 Pages

Although her independence throughout the story outshines the thought of her getting married. The difference with Maggie is that she is in tune with her family and traditions despite her poverty. She embodies the values of her hereditary past like when Dee asked about the dasher, she knew that Aunt Dee’s first husband whittled it (917). Little details add up and prove how much Maggie values and appreciates her family legacy. Both women were classified as rural poor people.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

She deliberately avoids her and her new sense of self-righteousness. Maggie's lack of exposure to society makes her weak in her sister's eyes and vulnerable to her sister's pretentious attitude toward what is owed to Maggie. Dee disturbs the peace by proclaiming, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!” It is clear that Dee believes that she deserves to receive whatever she wants, yet Maggie never fights for what she is already entitled

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1032 Words | 5 Pages

Sarnowski describes Maggie by stating, “She ekes out an existence on the family farm and has neither the intelligence nor the physical attributes of Dee/Wangero” (Sarnowski 278). This statement shows that Maggie lives a conservative type of farm life, and due to this lifestyle, she is less intelligent than her sister. This statement also shows how the character Maggie is described in a sense as inferior to Dee because of her lack of education and physical attributes. Maggie’s traditionalist ways show, however, when she tells her mother, “"She can have them, Mama,” … "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts"” (Walker 6).

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1338 Words | 6 Pages

“Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. “she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (walker). This shows that dee really wants the quilts but not for the reason her mother wants.

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869 Words | 4 Pages

The story is told from the point of view of their mother, Ms. Johnson, and it is from her that we learn about the difference in the sister’s characters. Dee, who changes her name to Wangero, is outspoken and is the educated sister. Maggie is shy and appears to be ashamed of the burns on her skin. “[Maggie] thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that ‘no’ is a word the world would never learn to say to her” (Walker 6). This is important because, in the end, Dee does not get her way.

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610 Words | 3 Pages

Characterization in “Everyday use” In “Everyday Use” Alice Walker creates the characters of Mom, Maggie, and Dee in order to explore the appreciation and values of African American culture and what it stands for. The story grows around one daughter Dee coming back home to visit her family. As one is introduced to the characters in “Everyday Use”, it becomes noticeable that the two sisters, Maggie and Dee, are very different. Maggie is portrayed as a homely and ignorant girl, while Dee is portrayed as a beautiful and educated woman.

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1069 Words | 5 Pages

When I came to America, I had to go through much struggle. First and the most important was that I did not know how to speak English. Apart from this I was very shy, so I didn’t communicate with people frequently.     Growing up in America and being a son of two Indian parents, I never felt truly American or Indian. I spoke Punjabi at home, but was educated in English so I had difficulty managing two languages.

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465 Words | 2 Pages

In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not.

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1026 Words | 5 Pages

Maggie did not go to school, does not dress in colorful attention-getting African garb, and does not have a fancy boyfriend, but she does slam a door which indicates her feelings about the quilts and butter churn her sister has come to claim out from under her feet. The temper has flared, and Maggie gets her quilts. In conclusion, the story seems to tell how different Maggie and Dee were from each other; with few comparisons between the two girls to suggest that they had anything in

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