Relationships Between Father And Son In Everyday Use

For modern generations, especially in the western cultures, the idea of parents decide on their children choices is not very popular and sometimes can be very dangerous. For the most part this practice is in large unacceptable. We are living in a time where children make their own choices on what to do with the lives. Whether it is marriage, culture, jobs, education these choices are usually placed in the hand of every child once they reach the legal age of adulthood. In some case children make these choices even before they become adults. In the past, these choices were usually made by parents and even enforced even enforced by law. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the relationships between father and son in “ Everyday Use” by Alice

Walker with the relationship between mother and daughters in Chinua Achebe’s story “Marriage Is a Private Affair”. I will look at the characterizations as well as the conflicts that exist between generations as it relate to choice we make.
First is the issue of a culture and tradition. In "Everyday Use," Alice Walker tells the story of a mother who does what she could to raise her two daughters Dee and… in the south at a time where it was important to impart her way of life and her legacy in their lives. Although she instill in both of them what she thought was right, these girls grow up to be two distinct individuals in every way possible. Each girl has developed her own belief and her own personality. One grows up to become well educated, independent. She refuses to live and accept the choices that were made for her by her culture and her mother and decide to follow her own path and destiny. The other daughter embraced the values and believe that were made for her by her mother and her culture. The mother, though have loved for her older daughter, feel that sense of shame and unappreciated by what Dee chose to do with her live. The mother is mesmerizing how she would want to be embraced and appreciated by her daughter like we see on those TV programs. “Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort.” (Walker 13). Dee refuses to live the life and the system that she grew up in. She even changes her name. She said: "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after people who oppress me." (Walker 77).