Dee In The Short Story 'Everyday Use' By Alice Walker

Dee in the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker seems to think she remembers where she came from. On the other hand, Toluwa in the spoken poem “Sugarcane” by Toluwanimi Obiwole used to dislike where she came from. And last but not least, Langston Hughes in the short poem “Let America be America Again”, asks our society to never forget the melting pot of various cultures that America is built on. One’s culture plays a part in how we view society and how society views us.
In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Dee seems to have a struggle when it comes to understanding her heritage. She renames herself "Wangero Leewanika Kemanj” stating that "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.” Yet the name “Dee” is derived from Dee’s aunt, Dicie. Here is the first example of Dee thinking she is getting closer to her roots. Dee then wants to take the churn top and dasher

America has always been a melting pot of cultures from its conception. Hughes wants America to be what it stood originally was, a place which was found on liberty and justice for all. This includes “the poor white, the Negro bearing slavery’s scars, the red man driven from the land and the immigrant clutching the hope I seek.” America symbolizes a place where people from all places can come together to seek "a home where he himself is free”. Hughes himself writes that he is the "one who left dark Ireland’s shore, And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.” Hughes stresses that America is the land where “every man is free.” that includes the "poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME”. We should not forget how America was originally founded, especially in this day and age. Our core values of diversity are what makes America great, and we should never forget