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Importance of tradition to african history
An essay about cultural heritage
An essay about cultural heritage
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Dee wants to emerge as dependent on her African heritage. She changes her family’s name to more African style name, Wangero. Dee also changes her fashion style to a more traditional African style. Dee depends on her new heritage as history, while her mother dependence of it is practical use. Dee pushes away her mother’s traditional values, but keeps the history of them instead of their everyday use. Mama’s heritage is close to dying as the practical use of the remaining items are becoming endanger of be forgotten. Dee’s mother sees these heirlooms for their practical uses and wants Maggie, Dee’s sister, to have them. Mama believes Maggie will most likely use them for their intended purposes and continue using them. Mama doesn’t want to see her other daughter changing the meaning of her heritage. Dee has no clue of her African heritage. Only things from her true past is her African heritage and her family’s heirlooms: the carved dashers and quilt. She views these’s artifacts as display objects and not for their actual practical use anymore. She pivots herself away from her family’s true heritage of poor black farmers and wants to value it differently as art and history. Art is history. Art is heritage. Dee’s new vision of her heritage is completely different from her mother’s vision, but Dee’s ideas for the family’s heritage is more correct when trying to preserve it. She values the past artifacts differently and wants to try to preserve her family’s heritage as art in her new apartment. Dee changes her name to a more African style name, Wangero as well as her clothing style too. She wants to express her family’s culture as history, using the carved dashers and quilts to display them like art, which is her version of heritage and better appreciation of them. Dee cherishes her African heritage and wants to preserve it as her mother is trying to hold on to the current tradition of it and fails to envision Dee’s new idea of their
From the moment Wangero, who changed her name to fit into the continental African image that her peers were emulating, arrives to her mother’s house, she has obviously changed from the time she was last with her family, not only has she changed her hand-me-down name, but she has also taken up a strange new interest in her family heirlooms....
Helga Hoel states in her essay “Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’”, “These important names Dee bases her new-found identity on resemble Kikuyu names, but at least two of them are misspelt” (Hoel). Hoel states that Wangero’s names are an unlikely mixture of names from various African ethnic groups, and that “ [Wangero] is confused and has only superficial knowledge of Africa and all it stands for” (Hoel). Wangero is losing sight of her true heritage, but the heritage she is trying to push upon herself is one she barely understands. This detail is important because, although it does require research to discover, it adds another layer of irony to the character of Wangero in which can be seen an indicator of how Walker
In Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use,” symbolism, allegory, and myth stand out when thinking about the characters, setting, and conflict in the story. The conflict is between the mother and her two daughters (Maggie and Dee). There is also the conflict between the family’s heritage (symbolized by the quilt, bench, and butter chum) and their different ways of life. Dee chose a new African name, moved to the city, and adopted a new way of life while Maggie and her mother have stay behind. The quilt (the most important symbol) represents the family’s heritage in that it is made of scraps of clothing worn by generations of family members. The quilt has been sewn by family hands and used on family beds. It has seen history and is history. Maggie and her mother see that that history is alive but Dee thinks it is as dead as her name. Dee does not see that name as part of her heritage. By analyzing these symbols, a number of possibilities for a theme can be seen. Walker could be suggesting that to understand the African-American heritage, readers have to include the present as well as the past. However, the theme could be that poverty and a lack of sophistication and education cannot be equated with ignorance. Lastly, she could be telling her readers that dignity or self-respect rise from and are virtually connected to one’s entire heritage- not just a selected part of it.
So much so, that she had gone home from college to try to get some old family belongings to put on “display” to try to keep the history alive. Unlike Maggie, Dee didn’t care much of the future, she just cared about the past and taking all sentimental family heirlooms. Dee being so caught up in the past, even changes her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. When Dee first mentions the name change Mama is caught off guard. Mama was confused by this statement and asked, "What happened to ‘Dee’ "(Walker 5). Dee was trying to be polite but she came off extremely blunt by saying "She's dead, I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me" (Walker 5). Dee’s Name had been passed down from generation to generation, if that doesn’t scream family heritage I don’t know what would. Maggie wasn’t the smartest but she sure knew what she had to do to keep the family tradition going. Maggie was in love and had her whole life ahead of her. Therefore, thinking about the future, she knew having kids one day, would keep the tradition alive. After Mama figured out which child really did value the family heritage, everything started to change for the
In her short story Everyday Use, Alice Walker talks about a Mother Mama, and her two daughters Dee and Maggie, their personalities and reactions to preservation of their family heirlooms. She shows that while Dee has been sent to school for further education, Maggie is left at home and brought up in the old ways. Mama often dreams and longs for the day she can be reunited with Dee, like in the TV shows. She knows this may not be possible because Dee would read and shower them with a lot of knowledge that was unnecessary, only to push them away at the right moment, “like dimwits” (313); Mama and Dee have different conceptions of their family heritage. Family heirlooms to Mama means the people created, used
The daughter Dee, who is coming to visit, has left this rural landscape through her education. Dee has even taken on an African name for herself: Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Dee "couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me." (Walker 386)
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," explores Dee and Maggie's opposing views about their heritage by conveying symbolism through their actions. Maggie is reminded of her heritage throughout everyday life. Her daily chores consist of churning milk, helping mama skin hogs on the bench which is the same table her ancestors built, and working in the pasture. On the other hand, Dee moved to the city where she attends college. It is obvious throughout the story; Dee does not appreciate her heritage. When Dee comes back to visit Mama and Maggie she announces that she has changed her name to Wangero. Dee states "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me" (89). Her stopping the tradition of the name Dee, which goes back as far as mama can remember, tells the reader that Dee does not value her heritage. Another symbolism of her lack of appreciation for her heritage demonstrated through her actions is when Dee asks Mama if she can have the churn top to use it as a ce...
While reading this there were some animosity toward Dee because of what type of character she was. The animosity was caused by the numerous comments and actions that occurred in the story. She was very selfish, uneducated, and very unappreciative of where she came from. Dee carried herself in a very ridiculous way. Among Dee’s family she is the object of jealousy, awe, and agitation, meanwhile she searches for her purpose and sense of self. Dee and her judgmental nature has an effect on Mama and Maggie, her younger sister. Although she across as being arrogant and insensitive, Mama sees he strive to know more and do more. Dee also portray as being a condensing type person because no matter where Mama and Maggie lived she still kept her commitment to come and visit. When Dee comes to visit she tells Maggie and Mama that she has changed her because Dee had died when she left for college. Dee changed her name to Wangoero, which come across as being an attention seeking ploy who still keeps the selfishness of Dee. With Dee changing her name to Wangoero she wants to reclaim her heritage and honor
Regretfully, though readers can see how Mama has had a difficult time in being a single mother and raising two daughters, Dee, the oldest daughter, refuses to acknowledge this. For she instead hold the misconception that heritage is simply material or rather artificial and does not lie in ones heart. However, from Mama’s narrations, readers are aware that this cultural tradition does lie within ones heart, especially those of Mama’s and Maggie’s, and that it is the pure foundation over any external definition.
The way that Dee wanted to preserve the quilts her ancestors crafted instead of their traditional everyday use was similar to when the main character in Araby originally thought that love was not something that needs to be won over or bought. Dee rejected what was known to be true by trying to preserve her family's useful quilts like artifacts. She explained that her sister did not understand by saying "’Maggie can't appreciate these quilts! She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.’" The quilts showed the hard working people of her family's past, yet she attempted to reject that in a twisted modernist way. The way that Dee tried to move away from tradition was similar to how the main character in Araby realized the wrongness of his perception of love’s tradition. He started out by putting his crush on a pedestal, and believing that the way to someone's heart was through gifts and money. It was almost like he was bribing her to an event called the Bazaar with him when he said “`If I go, I will bring you something.'” Then he had an epiphany. Love must be reciprocal, not something that can be won.This traditional way of trying to win one’s love instead of it being a reciprocal concept was then discovered to be false to him. The way of questioning what is true led to enlightenment in Araby, whereas in Everyday Use it led to regression. Both
The character of Dee has many facets. She is blessed with good looks and a strong desire to succeed, but her blind and self-serving desire for success does hamper how she perceives her past and her heritage. By hiding "everything above the tip of her nose and her chin" (415), she deftly manages to disguise herself from anyone who might discover true ancestry. She refuses to accept her past as it really happened. She wants to be able to create the images to her liking. The past is something that cannot be recreated to suit our new ideas, however: It is a part of us that cannot be changed.
Another example of Dee's confusion about her own African-American heritage is expressed when she announces to her mother and sister that she has changed her name to "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo." When her mother questions her about the change, Dee says, "I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me" (411). According to her mother, the name has been in the family since before the Civil War and most likely represents family unity to her. However, Dee does not realize that. Apparently, she believes that by changing her name she is expressing solidarity with her African ancestors and rejecting the oppression implied by the taking on of American names by black slaves.
Cultural capitalism is having assets that give an individual social mobility (Szeman & Kaposy 88). Such as, with knowledge and/or education, embody speech and personality and objectified: one’s belongings and/or clothing. Through the rise of the Civil Rights Era, Dee becomes more aware of the culture she came from through her surroundings and begins to “embrace” it. She visits Mama’s house to collect some the ancestral quilts in which she denied before. Dee attempts to get more in touch with her African roots by going as far as changing her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. When arriving at her mother’s house she shared the news of the name change. When Mama quickly questions her, “what happened to Dee?”, Wangero exclaims, “she is dead” (Walker 924). Wangero (Dee) goes the extra mile to her name to make a statement to those around her and becomes noticeable becomes Afrocentric. Mama explains to Wangero the deep family meaning to her name, Dee she nullifies her mother’s answer and explains to her that the name “Dee” originates from slaves given by white slave owners. In the process of Dee Wangero’s transformation to her “deep roots”, she dating an African American Muslim named Hakim-a-barber. With Dee Wangero changing her name and reclaiming her culture she offends her mother through the process but little does she know she is hurting her
“Everyday Use” is a story based in the era of racial separation between communities of diverse ethnicity. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker merely scratches the surface of racial heritage and the elimination of previous ways of living. This discontinuation of poverty driven physical labor shines through Dee as she grows to know more of her heritage throughout her years in school. An example of this is when Dee changes her name; this is an indication of Dee/Wangero wanting to change her lifestyle after the harsh truth she is hit with while going to school. Dee learns about the struggles of African Americans during this time, which changes her view on the unforgiving reality of her family’s lifestyle. In “Everyday Use”, the author opens the mind
through she is there with her mom everyday(Cowart 171-72). When Wangero comes back with her boyfriend, she acts like she 's better than them because she found her heritage and she lost what is important to them the mother-daughter relationship. In another source it say “Dee obviously holds a central place in Mama’s world,” so her central place is the reason why all the stuff that she wants she gets especially things that hold heritage value(Susan Farrell 180). The mother-daughter bond that she shares with Wangero is much more special and that bond with her mom should mean more to her then the quilts or anything else with any type of history