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What is identity? Often, people confuse identity with personality. While personality describes your personal qualities such as being shy or outgoing, identity involves a combination of different aspects. Culture, language, family, friends, and society are a few of the aspects that helps shape a person's identity. For a person to feel identified, they must share similarities or differences with others. Sharing personality traits is effortless, but identity requires active engagement. Identity also involves a combination of how you see yourself and how others see you. How others see you can be influenced by economic, social, and physical constraints. These constraints cause a tension between how much control you have in constructing your own …show more content…
Feeling ashamed of her African culture and family, Dee wishes that her mother and sister look different and that her home would be nicer. Mama always knew how Dee felt about her, “My daughter would want me to be a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. But that is a mistake” (par. 6). Dee’s judgmental nature has affected her mother’s self-view. Dee has returned from college to visit her family, but with a different attitude. Dee portrays herself as a confident and exceeding person, however, her mother sees her as arrogant and insensitive. In attempts to reconnect with her African roots, Dee has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Mama is cognizant that Dee’s intentions are not genuine and sees it as a rejection of her heritage. Worrying more about taking pictures of her surrounding, Dee neglects to spend time with her family. Mama notices that Dee, “Lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included” (par. 22). Mama recognizes that Dee’s has only come to collect items to take back home instead of honoring and embracing her roots. Before leaving to college Dee’s mother had given her a quilt to take with her, but Dee was too embarrassed by it to take it. Now, Dee has asked her mother for it so that she can take as a part of her collection. Infuriated, her mother decided to stop Dee from continuing be deceitful of who she is. Evidently, Dee and her mother have very different views about Dee’s character. Between Dee’s self-view and her mother’s, we can see different features of Dee’s
True identity is something people must create for themselves by making choices that are significant and that require a courageous commitment in the face of challenges. Identity means having ideas and values that one lives by” (Merton). Concurring with Merton, a person is not given their identity at birth or while developing as an embryo, rather it is something that you create for yourselves over the course of life through decisions and actions made by the individual. Identity is something that one may not be fully aware of or discover until the last breath. Identity can be influenced through associations with others, and environmental factors.
Before beginning the explanation of how an identity is formed, one must understand what an identity is. So, what is identity? To answer this, one might think of what gives him individuality; what makes him unique; what makes up his personality. Identity is who one is. Identity is a factor that tells what one wants out of life and how he is set to get it. It tells what kind of a person one is by the attitude and persona he has. And it depends upon the mixture of all parts of one’s life including personal choices and cultural and societal influences, but personal choices affect the identity of one more than the others.
Momma asks Dee what happened to her name and she says, “She’s dead. I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me”. (27) Dee has no idea her name comes from her own heritage. Momma explains to Dee, “You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie. Dicie is my sister. She named Dee. We called her ‘Big Dee’ after Dee was born” (28). Wangero is very well educated and is only trying to understand the African portion of her heritage, but she in blind to the heritage from her family she grew up with. She looks down on her momma and younger sister, not realizing they are the most important parts of her
In the beginning of the story, Dee (Wangero) is introduced as someone that needs to be impressed. The narrator has a fantasy about being reunited with Dee (Wangero) (393). She is described as being beautiful and a wonderful daughter with many good qualities. Besides being beautiful, she is confident. Instead of feeling suppressed because of the color of her skin, she is able to look people in the eye (394). Dee (Wangero) is also educated and the way she talks shows it. She is also opinionated and her family is intimidated by it. Dee’s (Wangero’s) qualities are overall good qualities to have, but I feel like she uses them to act better than her family. The fact that she had changed her name to Wangero (397) and demanded the quilts while she was visiting made me feel that she was superficial. She did not even want the quilts when they were first offered to her before she went to college (400). I do not think it is right to change your family name and then come home and request family heirlooms. Dee (Wangero) always seems to get wha...
Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them are. The most interesting point about identity is that some people know what they want and who they are, while it takes forever for others to figure out the factors mentioned before. Many of the individuals analyzed in this essay are confused about the different possible roles or positions they can adopt, and that’s exactly the reason they look for some professional help.
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
An identity is more than just a name. Sometimes an identity is the first thing and possible the only thing a person notices about one or the other. A person's identity can represent their culture, their race and sometimes, even possible their family background. My identity is what represents me. For those who does not know me personally but knows my name, knows my identity. This identity is what people will recognize me as for now and possible for ever.
Everyone struggles with identity at one point in their life. It will eventually happen to everyone. Identity is how people see one another, it is one of the most important things about someone. Identity goes hand in hand with experience. One’s experiences can impact one’s identity.
Although all of the character’s views on heritage are expressed, Dee’s character is given the more detailed description of ways she strays from her heritage. From the beginning, Dee despises the home that they live in. When it is destroyed in a fire, her mother wants to ask her, “Why don’t you do a dance around the ashes?,” expressing Dee’s utter aversion towards the home (Walker 409). Most people take pride in their home and cherish it for all of the memories that it holds for them, but Dee is insensitive to the family’s loss. After becoming of age, Dee decides to go to college, where she begins to hold her newly found knowledge against her family because of their lack of it. This opportunity to go out of her town and see the world gives Dee a taste of a better lifestyle that she wants to become apart of, and leaves her family behind. While Dee is away at college, she denies the quilts that her mother has offered her saying that “they were old-fashioned, and out of style” because she is still longing to separate herself from her family as much as possible (Walker 413). One of the main things that Dee does to distance herself from her family, and tarnish part of her family’s tradition is the changing of her name Dee Johnson, to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, because she feels that it comes from “the people that oppressed me” (Walker 411). This act comes to Mama...
Dee makes it clear, long before she asked for the quilts, that she has already taken her heritage for granted. Dee makes the bold proclamation that she is not longer going by the name Dee, “‘Not Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!’” (Walker, 3013). Not only has “Wangero” shocked her mother with her new name, but goes to attack those her family history, “I could not longer bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppressed me.” The author make a substantial point by connecting Dee’s new beliefs to disowning her heritage and her ancestors. Despite the rejection of her family’s humbled life, Dee finds a desire in the quilt of her family’s past. Dee’s request for the quilts is far from nostalgic and she has little consideration for her sister when she asks for both antique quilts. Dee is in love with the idea of displaying her family as a display of her superiority over her ancestors and can not understand why her mother would not agree with her.
When Dee first arrives home from college in Augusta, Georgia she steps out of the car with, “A dress so loud it hurts my eyes… Earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arms up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits,” (Walker 463). The loud dress and the gold jewelry shows that Dee was embracing her extended heritage. This was very popular with the Malcom X movement Back to Africa. Dee even went so far as to change her name to “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo,” because she, “couldn’t bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me,” (Walker 464). For Dee to change the name that was given to her shows that she is truly ashamed of her immediate heritage. She shows that she not only struggles with the external conflict with Mama, but Dee also struggle with an internal conflict. She has a relationship with a Muslim named Asalamalakim who is also part of the Back to Africa movement. While Dee and Asalamalakim are visiting Dee’s family he and Dee eat dinner with Mama and Maggie. Asalamalakim is fully devoted to his religion and culture by not eating anything because he didn’t like collards and refused to eat pork because his religion teaches that pork is unclean. Dee, on the other hand, took part of the dinner and all the components in the meal. She was embracing her immediate heritage, yet the
Dee is shallow and manipulative. Not only does her education separate her from her family identity and heritage, it prevents her from bonding with her mother and sister. If Dee could only push her arrogance aside, she would be able to develop a deep connection with her family. While connecting with her family, Dee would also develop a deeper understanding of her heritage. Maggie and Mama did not give in to the “whim of an outside world that doesn’t really have much to do with them” (Farrell par.1). In the attempt to “fit” in, Dee has become self-centered, and demanding with her very own family; to the extent of intimidation, and
As Dee is becoming older and more wrapped up in society, she is not crediting her mother and acknowledging her sister and all of the heritage Dee left behind. The story was taken place during the 1960-1970’s. Because many colored people during this time, changed their names to become closer with a heritage that they are not really a part of. In the story, it was able to give you the mother’s point of view in their current situation. As Alice Walker states in Everyday Use, “Well, I say. Dee.” “No, Mama,” she says. “Not Dee,” Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!” From this, we can already assume that Dee might have been ashamed of her name, or wanted to be a part of the new ways of society. From the example given above, we can understand the mother’s frustration in the story. Another example from Everyday Use “You know as well as me you was named after aunt Dicie, Dicie is my sister. She was named after Dee. We called her Big Dee after Dee was born” the mother knows Dee cannot cherish her quilts if she cannot even cherish her own generational name. In the story, Dee changing her name symbolizes how she has grown from her family and has grown closer with the society and their views on heritage and generations. We can determine the frustration the mother had about Dee and how she has forgotten everything that the family went through to even enable her to become who Dee is
Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.
Webster's dictionary describes identity as sameness of essential character, individuality, or the fact of being the same person as one claims to be. So your identity can include your name, your age, your job title, or simply characteristics of your body. These things are facts, facts you don't care to share with the world. Just as the word suggests your identity is something by which you can be identified. These are things that describe a person in terms a stranger would understand. This area of identity is proof of who you are. However, your identity is also composed of what you are. They mark your role in society. Who you are and what you do make up your identity. This is essential in the human life span because people are always searching to find where they truly belong in the world.