Unik Erikson's Identity Crisis In Everyday Use

According to Erik Erikson, an identity crisis is, "to find a balance between developing a unique, individual identity while still being accepted and 'fitting in '" (Oswalt). In the short story "Everyday Use" a character, named Dee, is having an identity crisis. This is shown throughout the story in many ways in the way she acts, the way she talks, and the way she presents her attitude. The character Dee is experiencing an identity crisis and it obvious for three reasons, she is changing her life style, when confronted about the new changes she was anger, and she wants everyone to accept this new person, Wangero.

When Dee arrived at the farm, her mother noticed that she was wearing a yellow, flowery dress. This dress resembled African

Because of Dee’s new persona, Wangero, was not accepted by her family, this caused her to become angered and defensive. Mama and Maggie do not like this new Wangero person. Since Dee family is not reacting well to the new her, this could be bad news for her mental health. Oswalt says that the way your parents and family react to the new you can affect the outcome of an identity crisis. Usually, if the parents become angered or react negatively to the final result of the crisis them it will output a worse result than if they would have been more calm and supportive (Oswalt). This continue you the argument of whether Dee has a crisis because the reason she is so defensive of her new personality proves that she is confused about who she really is. This brings the reader to believe that she really wants to be something she is not. Mama found this new way of life strange from Dee 's new style of what she eats, what she wears, and the way she presents her new attitude. Dee 's was not raise like this she learned this new behavior from when she was at college. When Dee insist to push her new attitude toward not getting the quilts and other heirlooms, this angered Mama because she knows that this is all a fake image Dee is filling her head with (Walker). Therefore, her family’s reaction to Dee’s new self was so important because now she is going to persist to continue her new way(Oswalt). Even with her family not accepting Wangero, Dee really was wanted her family to accept

Since Dee became angered and defensive, this cause her need for attention to increase. She went off to college to impress her mother who only had a first-grade education. Dee wore beautiful clothes to impress her sister and to embrace her African heritage. She wants her sister to look up to her, and that is why she gave advice to her at the end of the story, so that she could be a role model for Maggie. Dee show that she wants her mother to proud of her because she is trying to fight the oppression her mother was just used to. This confused her mother because she just thought that it would always be like, but Dee 's friends have shown her hope in becoming equal whether she thinks this or not. The reason this was implied was because of her devotion to the cause of becoming equal. This was a big boost for the identity crisis to start because she did not know that the dream of becoming equal was possible. This influenced Dee to become Wangero because she has becoming a supporter of becoming free. Because Dee is trying so hard to change herself to become accepted and unique, this proves that she has developed an identity crisis (Walker).

In conclusion, Dee has developed an identity Crisis for three reasons. One, is because she has drastically change her lifestyle. Two, when confronted about the major changes she has made in her life she became defensive and angered. Three, she proves that all she wants is to be accepted, and that she wants to unique while still being