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Everyday Use Literary Analysis

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We all come from different background. We all have a different story about our ancestors and heritage. In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Dee felt the need to go on a quest to embrace her roots. Dee’s actions symbolize that she wants to embrace her African culture. Dee does several things in order to connect with her roots by changing her appearance, changing her name, and wanting a family quilt.
The short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker takes place around the 1970s. Mama is the mother of two girls named Maggie and Dee. The two daughter are expressed with two different personalities. Maggie is a shy girl that was of the burn mark she experienced when there caught on fire when she was 12 years-old. Dee was able to have …show more content…

This event takes place when Mama and Dee are having a conversation. Dee response to her mom by saying , “No, Mama”. “Not Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!” “What happened to Dee’?” I wanted to know. “She dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn’t beat it any longer being named after the people who oppress me,” (363). Mama continues the conversation about how Dee got her name. The name was passed on from generation to generation. When Dee states “named after the people who oppress me” she is referring that her name most likely came from a white man slave owner. During the time of slavery, the white man owner would name their slaves. Since the name Dee was passed on from generation to generation she believes that the name brings her down. The article, “Analysis Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo Dee” the author stated the reason that Dee wanted to change her name is because, “The Nation of Islam encouraged Africans to abandon their 'slave names', their leader Elijah Muhammed writes "You must remember that slave-names will keep you a slave in the eyes of the civilized world today.” I don’t agree with the quote said by Elijah Muhammed, Dee is an educated young woman that has broken the chain of oppressed. Her name shows that she, not a slave and takes the honor of all the success she has now. Unfortunately, her passed generation didn’t have the same opportunity like she did. But she can honor her ancestors by keeping

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634 Words | 3 Pages

Dee is also really selfish which makes her have tension between her family since she only cares about herself. Throughout the story, there were a lot of conflicts between Dee and her family which shows with the quilt incident, butter churn controversy and lastly different views on heritage. One of the main conflicts in Everyday Use is the quilt incident. The conflict started when Wangero (Dee) came out with two quilts that had been pieced by Grandma Dee and big Dee.

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664 Words | 3 Pages

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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133 Words | 1 Pages

We all grow up and change, sometimes we try to forget everything we were taught. Dee is trying to be something she is not for the sake of being higher up. She changed so much that her sister and mother don’t recognized her anymore. She doesn’t understand African or American culture and she just want to take all the family possessions to store them and show them off. Her name was special and she changed it for a name that really has no meaning she even got that wrong because it means nothing.

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today.

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271 Words | 2 Pages

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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303 Words | 2 Pages

Also, when she first sees her family, Dee says “Wa-su-zo-Tean-o!” (60) , which means “good morning” and is used by the people of Uganda, an East African continent.

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587 Words | 3 Pages

The authors, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, demonstrates how two women growing up together can lead to different point of views. In both stories, there is a woman – Sula in “Sula” and Dee in “Everyday Use” – returning home to find things the way they left them. Sula and Dee’s lives are considered very unconventional in comparison to their towns and families. In the case of Dee, she changed her name because, “I [She] couldn't bear it any longer, being named after people who oppress me." (Walker 1191)

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327 Words | 2 Pages

When Dee comes home for a visit she brings with her a new identity. She changes her name to an African name because she thinks it’s more significant to her heritage. This is ironic because her name Dee is handed down through four generations,

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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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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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1276 Words | 6 Pages

In attempts to reconnect with her African roots, Dee has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Dee has also taken an interest in embracing her African heritage and has dressed in traditional African clothes to visit her mother. Her mother knows that Dee’s intentions are not genuine. Worrying more about taking pictures of her mother and collecting items that represent the African culture to take back home, Dee neglects to spend time with her family. Her mother notices that Dee, “Lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me.

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830 Words | 4 Pages

In the story, “Everyday Use,” the oldest sister Dee redefines her views of her family’s heritage. Dee leaves her rural home to receive an education in the city, but when returning back home she has changed completely. Specifically, Dee changes her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo which creates difficulties for her mother. In the story Dee explains, “Couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me" (Walker 318). She views her past name as a reminder that African Americans are not given original names.

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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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565 Words | 3 Pages

Growing up was hard for me because I was always moving from state to state. Sometimes I would just move from one school to another. I moved, because my dad was transferred for work every time. Every time I moved I had lost all of my friends, and I always had to make new friends. I have moved to four different states and lived in seven different houses.

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