Category: Everyday Use

The portrayal of a heritage-leaning protagonist who preserves her African-American traditions and a contrasting character that shares the same folklore, but renounces her American custom, invites us to question in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” about how these experiences of oppression can ignite change on an identity. The former describes the mother, having a strong sense of understanding on her own culture, does not allow her eldest daughter Dee, the one described by the latter, to claim the heirloom quilts for display purposes and should instead be given to Maggie, her younger sister for it to be used. The story may appear as a typical mother and daughter relationship gap, having a conflict on their respective beliefs. However, Walker’s use of this timely situation serves as a mechanism to echo her critique of those individuals who misunderstood the ideals of their own culture. The short story is set in the late 1960s to early 1970s wherein African-Americans are in crisis to define their own identities in relation to heritage (White). They want to search on their African roots and deny their American custom since their experience of discrimination is too massive for them to bear and remember. Walker contends that being an African-American is being African-American in all aspects. Rejecting this other side of an individual’s heritage can be considered as harmful and a form of disrespect to the ones before them.

The story’s emphasis on the mother is most evident in terms of her loyalty towards sustaining family inheritance, as first observed on Dee’s change of name: “Well”, I say. “Dee”. “No, mama,” she says. “Not ‘Dee’, Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!”… “You know as well as me you was named after your Aunt Dicie,” I said. Dicie is my sister. She named Dee. We called her “Big Dee” after Dee was born (par 25-26, 29).

This alteration of identity though the use of another name reveals the reality of those African-Americans, called collectively as the Black Power Movement, who want to refute their relationship to the American heritage. As Dee explains, “She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (par. 28), speaks a lot of their conviction to eliminate that sense of tagged affiliation given that the appellation “Dee” embodies the Americans as oppressors, while “Wangero” is solely African in nature and sound.

Stressing the harm on this type of heritage rejection through alteration of a name in the story, is reflected through the mother’s acceptance as she points out, “Why shouldn’t I?” I asked. “If that’s what you want us to call you, we’ll call you.” (par. 40). Tolerance, because of biased circumstance on their relationship, can be a small step towards gradual riddance of African-American heritage. Furthermore, her lenience on Dee’s change of name to Wangero is validated through this narration:

Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort. Out of a dark and soft seated limousine I am ushered into a bright room filled with many people. There I meet a smiling, gray, sporty man like Johnny Carson who shakes my hand and tells me what a fine girl I have. Then we are on the stage and Dee is embracing me with tears in her eyes. She pins on my dress a large orchid, even though she has told me once that she thinks orchids are tacky flowers (par.4).

This vividly accentuates the longing of a mother for her daughter and thus justifies her acceptance with her name, although it rejects the heritage she holds. Notwithstanding their bittersweet relationship, the mother becomes considerate of Dee’s arrival in their home even on the way she dresses up:

Dee next. A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun…The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it (par. 21).

This type of small-scale toleration makes it harmful if consistently practiced within a household setting since it branches out slowly to society as a basic unit, until the connection of American heritage will no longer be existing.

Another evident emphasis on the mother’s stronghold of heritage is on the three heirlooms: chute top, dasher and quilts. Dee wants to claim these possessions to be set as objects of attraction given its aesthetic antiquity, as she claims: “[I] can use the chute top as a centerpiece for the alcove table”, she said, sliding a plate over the chute, “and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher.” (par. 54). This type of shallow view on heritage follows an opposing perspective from her mother,

When [Dee] finished wrapping the dasher the handle stuck out. I took it for a moment in my hands. You didn’t even have to look close to see where hands pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood. In fact, there were a lot of small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood. It was a beautiful light yellow wood, from a tree that grew in the yard where Big Dee and Stash had lived (par.55).

More than just beauty, the dasher itself is a symbol for all of her loved ones and predecessors who made and use them in their lifetime (White). Her undying appreciation is a reflection of how much she values them the way she places great importance to the object, as an inherited possession. The quilt becomes the center of conflict, cresting the change on her mother’s tolerance as she points out,

[I] did something I never done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap. Maggie just sat there on my bed with her mouth open (par. 77).

Laying emphasis on the use of “Miss Wangero”, Dee is tested as someone who is educated, determined and cannot be thwarted. This signals the defiance of her mother from the lenience she imposed when her eldest pronounced her change of name and on her claiming of the dasher into a mere design. Synthesizing down the facets of reality, Walker challenges the Black Power Movement, through the character of Dee, that does not acknowledge, understand and respect the African-Americans who suffered unbearable adversities on their struggle to survive on an aggressive environment (White). This impulsive black egotism is narrated by the mother towards Wangero’s character in the story:

[S]he used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice…She pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand (par.11).

Alice Walker’s Everyday Use, included in the In Love and Trouble short story collection, was published in 1973, a moment in history known as the ‘Black Power Movement’. This movement encouraged racial pride and equality. Everyday Use relates the struggles of African American women due to their racial identity, although the story is about the contrast between two sisters and the struggle of heritage. Alice Walker represents the situation of the black society in America through the relationship of three women, Mrs. Johnsons and her two daughters. The author also uses the narrative to project meaning into the story, as it is related on a personal way through the narrator, the character of Mrs. Johnsons. This essay portrays the application of two theoretical concepts from different schools of thought, which are the theories of Marxism and Psychoanalysis, to analyze the work of Everyday Use.

Marxist theories defend a classless society, arguing that classes divides society. By analyzing Alice Walker’s Everyday Use, one can identify some basic concepts such as classism or capitalism. The story develops in the late 1900s in the South. It presents a poor family, composed by a single mother and her two children, struggling to survive.

In Everyday Use, we see the effect that classism has on society, because of this, it is a shattered society divided by the wealth that one owns, where only the richest can afford the best of everything. Likewise, in Everyday Use, we appreciate how classism has affected a modest family in hardship. The Johnson family belongs to a class that has few opportunities and resources. However, Dee had the rare but also extraordinary opportunity to go to college and receive an education, in contrast to her sister Maggie. In most societies, education is a symbol of success, social class, status, and power. After having received an education, Dee does not identify herself anymore with her family due to their low class and social position, so she decides to change her name. She says: “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker 278). The story portrays Dee as a very fortunate child that has achieved an education, but she also seems to have forgotten her roots and the difficulties that surrounded her during her growth. Then, Dee appears at her mother’s house selfishly and ungratefully, rarely dressed for herself. Marxist Theory tries to remove the impact of classism on society, as we can relate to Maggie by the manner in which her sister approaches her, treating her as a different person.

Capitalist ideologies can also be recognized in Everyday Use, as well as competence or the American dream. The competition is evident because in the story, Dee is constantly selfish with her sister and acts with her as if she doesn’t understand what she’s talking about, she intellectually superimposes herself for having gone to college. The American dream was understood as the willing to fight for a better life. This theory is projected in the character of Dee, who has always dreamed and hoped for a better life, unlike his mother and sister that have not yet done so. Dee is proud of the person she has become, but this also makes her ashamed of her family. This is demonstrated by Dee’s words to her sister: Dee’s thought about her family are shown through her behavior and attitude to them. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!…she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (Walker 280). She thinks that Maggie doesn’t deserve the quilts (those were ancient clothing patches from the family) because she is ignorant and she wouldn’t give the respect they deserved. Dee considers herself above the standards of her environment for having gone to college and receiving an education. It is because of this distinction that she considers herself part of the American dream. She was born into poverty and thanks to the help of her family and community she was able to go to school and become a better person. Since that moment, she no longer considers herself part of the poor community in which she grew up. Because of this, she believes her family is ignorant and stupid, focusing more on herself and less on her family. Marxism totally opposes to this dream, arguing that not everyone has the same opportunities or resources available to achieve it, as in the story, where Maggie never had the same opportunities as Dee and they could not aspire to an education. Marxism blames the American dream for illusions that cannot be fulfilled.

The psychoanalysis part of the work has much to see with the concept of ‘double consciousness’, understood as the awareness of belonging to two different and contrasting cultures, that appears in Dee’s character. After going to college, her personality totally changes as she has joined a ‘higher status’ than her family, when it was her family who helped financially to go to college. This double consciousness makes her attitude more arrogant, as she belongs to the African America community where she grew up, but she also considers herself part of a more elevated and educated class by attending to college. This analysis also includes the image that Dee creates of herself by denying that she comes from a poor family, or avoiding to remember the past. This image is a ‘psychological wall’ behind which she hides his past and through which she shows his new personality and way of life.

Today’s headlines, analysis papers, and debates sent a direct message about the expectations of gender stereotyping, which perpetuates the family dynamic. Parents directly convey their beliefs about gender by providing instruction, illustration, guidance, and training to their children from their early childhood. Cultural expectation assigns the role and expectation for both genders, to organize their lives and behavior. Children can observe gender stereotyping by the parents’ comments and behaviors in the households, such as the mother doing all the “missionary work” and the father doing all the “hardcore work”. Most differentiate sex-typed behaviors by encouraging their children’s involvement in gender-stereotypical activities, such as boys being outside horseplay while girls are inside playing with their dolls. While others rely on children’s individualities and attraction to certain activities. Gender socialization messages are indirectly transmitted through parents’ modeling of sex-typed behaviors. Gender stereotypes are perpetuated within the family dynamic by cultural expectations, gender socialization, and parents’ differential roles with their children.

Gender socialization is a process that is taught and given by the parents through the children’s development stages, which begins at birth through adolescence stage. Through the gender socialization process, children are taught the behaviors, attitudes, and social expectations associated with gender. “Boys don’t play with dolls” would be something a parent yells at a child to reinforce the belief that this behavior is not acceptable because children are taught to distinguish feminism and masculinity. Children learn that women and men act differently when they observe that mothers spend more time on caregiving, and fathers on leisure activities with their children. For example, the father is believed to have “hardcore” duties, such as going to work and lecturing the children about their behavior. The mother is believed to have “missionary” duties, such as staying home to take care of the children and household while the father is at work. We can see this behavior exhibited in the poem called “My Husband Back” by Susan Minot because, throughout the poem, she speaks about the household problems faced on her emotionally bad day while expressing her love for her husband and the hard work he does around the house. From this perspective, parents pass their attitudes about gender roles to their children, resulting in congruence between parents and children’s gender role attitudes. Religion plays a significant role in gender stereotypes because religion has a different set of rules and representations for each gender, which influence cultural expectations.

Cultural expectations employed gender roles to distinguish masculinity and femininity and also to distinguish the social roles of the sexes. Cultural expectations define “parenting” in each family structure and the duties to be a parent. Cultural expectations shape and reshape children to become the men and women they’re expected to be. Culture can create compulsive stereotyping for children to distinguish between masculine and feminine behaviors, which is viewed in studies like Gudyani (Dolls). Male children should not join nor company feminine games or activities, like tea parties or dress up. Not limited to chores, appearance, and personality is distinguished between masculine and feminine. In some cultures, female children are expected to do most of the household chores, keep a very clean appearance, and stay in school. Male children are expected to work at an early age and are not usually expected to keep a clean appearance because they’re expected to be hard workers and breadwinners. Cultural gender stereotyping can distinguish the treatment of female and male children. For example, a mother is seen to be more emotional and attentive to the children’s feelings; while the father is harsh on the children and focuses on punishment. Culture can influence parents’ differential role with their children by their behaviors and attitudes towards the children.

Parents have differential reactions to their sons and daughters, which is argumentative in every family household. Many children who have siblings can agree that their reactions differ depending on the child and gender. Parents normally are stricter and have higher expectations for their daughters than sons because daughters are expected to be well trained and kept in closed environments, such as the house. Sons can participate in a few activities that most female children aren’t allowed to participate in, such as dating and having the openness to speak about sex. For example, mothers use emotional explanations to describe their sons’ emotional distress (crying) or behavior; also usually to are more patient and gentler. Compared to their daughters, mothers use emotional labels to describe their daughters’ behavior and attitude because it is believed that girls are more emotional than boys. We can observe this behavior in the short story called “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, as Mama treats each daughter differently. Even though it has two daughters, this situation can relate to many male and female siblings’ households. As Mama is more attentive and protective of Maggie than Dee, we can still observe this with sons and daughters in a household. This same behavior is seen with fathers too. Fathers are seen to be more playful and spend more time with their sons than daughters because fathers believe that daughters are more fragile than boys. In other words, fathers can horseplay and play rough-competitive sports with their sons rather than daughters because rough-competitive sports a masculine activity, which might involve playing in the dirt. Even though girls are capable of playing the same sports as boys and handle manly jobs.

In some families, gender socialization and stereotyping don’t exist because the family lives in a one-parent household. In a nuclear family household, children would exhibit gender socialization by watching their fathers being the breadwinner, while their mother has the weaker position. This can be reversed and combined in a single-parent household, where one parent must take on both positions. Single mothers and fathers are seen to be the breadwinner, homemaker, etc. in the household because of the absence of the opposite sex. Like Mama said in “Everyday Use,” “In real life, I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands.” (Christian and Walker). Women in a single-parent household are seen to be capable of doing a man’s job and taking on the fatherly positions for their sons. As for fathers, we can see fathers today taking on the motherly position by learning how to their daughters’ hair and instructing their daughters about hygiene and menstruation. Even though in a single-parent household, gender stereotyping and socialization can still occur because the parent enforces a certain behavior in their child depending on sex. 

In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use” the theme is recurrent. This is one tough lady with a strong faith line. This story is represented in multiple ways. As the reader you can tell the narrator/main character has been through a lot. She has done it all on her own without a partner. The narrator does not like to draw attention to herself. The biggest way would be the harmony and the struggle and conflicts of the African-American culture. In this character analysis, Mrs. Johnsen is a mom to two beautiful daughters. Mrs. Johnsen has faith that helps guide her life down the right path. Mrs. Johnson is very proud of her heritage. It is also very interesting how when talking she never likes it about herself but leads in talk about her daughters every time. You can tell from reading this short story that the narrator is more on the reserved side than the character flaw.

Her love indicates the passion she has for her daughters. Her daughter’s names are Dee and Maggie. She helps raise them despite their living situations. This family lives in poverty. She helps Dee get a college education. After evaluating her daughter she notices that Dee does not have the value of heritage that she wishes she would have. She also notices that Maggie has more value for heritage.

The narrator also talks about how she never got an education herself. When we look at the sentence before from there we can see just how much the narrator loves her daughters. She gave up her life to support her daughters and give them the life and education that she never had. This narrator puts everything into perspective about herself and her love and compassion for her daughters first. After reading this short story I could tell the difference this mother made in her daughter’s life. You could also see how both the daughters are very different. One truly understands the culture and heritage of her mother’s life. The other daughter wants to have a quilt but does not care about the value of the quilt at hand.

After reading about the family understanding the situation of the narrator is super important for us as readers. We could understand where the narrator was coming from in an area such as the civil rights era. She has always worked for things she wanted in her life. Now as she helps her daughters get on the right track we can see the difference and change she has made in her career.

In the text it says, “Just like when I’m in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout. (76)” . The narrator is thinking she can maybe help change Maggie’s world views. She and Maggie didn’t always get along so great until she noticed that Dee didn’t want to keep the quilt she would rather sell the quilt because that means so much to Mama. Maggie is the only one who is starting to understand the concept and how much that quilt means to her and the heritage of people it has gone through.

This short story has so many good points and the narrator and the main character are so great at expressing the value and importance of heritage. The value is super important in this short story. It has the old-time part of something super good. Mrs. Johnson is a great mom to her two daughters and she teaches them valuable lessons every step of the way. She is a great mentor for her family and is a wise woman of her time.  

Dee, Mama’s eldest daughter, is a well-educated black woman. In embracing her traditional identity, she changed her name from Dee to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo (an African name). So, Dee notifies her mother that she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo in protest of the injustice and cultural bleaching that Black Americans have experienced.

The concept of modification names also has a connection to servitude; the personalities were attempting to erase their names of slaves and adopt more conventional names to recall their history and emphasize their African ancestry

Dee has initiated a unique identity for her, rejecting her true ancestors. She refuses to recognize her given name’s family tradition and adopts a new name, Wangero, which she thinks more appropriately portrays her African origin.

Dee has constructed a new heritage for herself and rejected her real heritage. She fails to see the family legacy of her given name and takes on a new name, Wangero, which she believes more accurately represents her African heritage. However, like the ‘African’ attire she wears to make statements, the new name has no meaning. She has a limited awareness of Africa, therefore what she perceives to be her authentic ancestry is fictitious. Dee also considers her true ancestors to be deceased.

The process of naming, renaming in Dee’s case,’ is a means of linking to history and a reflection of identity fluidity. Maggie’s name is never revealed, and Mama’s identity is never revealed, we do know, however, that these two people are steadfast and have significant ties to their past. As a result, it’s understandable that their names and identities are nondescript. Dee, on the other side, adopts an African name in an attempt to reinvent herself and accept what she perceives to be her genuine background. Dee considers that the name Wangero, which has been passed down through four generations, has more force and importance than Dee. Dee’s erroneous idea that she was called after her captors demonstrates a serious lack of comprehension. She perceives her given name as a metaphor for racial oppression, and she is quick to pass judgment. Dee’s desire to change her name reflects her conflicted feelings about her ancestors.

In other words, has moved away from her own family’s traditions and heritage, and has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo as part of her quest to reconnect with her African ancestry. In the process of trying to reclaim her ‘old’ origins. In striving to reclaim her ‘ancient’ origins, she has also rejected, or at the very least refused to recognize, her more immediate history, which she shares with her mother and sister.

Dee is shown as an intelligent, self-assured young woman who supports the Black Nationalism movement to appreciate her traditional African roots while rejecting America’s oppressive society, which involves some of her ancestors. To demonstrate her new identity as an independent, strong African woman, Dee changes her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Dee denies her conventional family background in favor of shunning the previous slave masters who gave her forefathers their names.

The psychoanalysis part of the work has much to see with the concept of ‘double consciousness’, understood as the awareness of belonging to two different and contrasting cultures, that appears in Dee’s character. After going to college, her personality changes as she has joined a ‘higher status’ than her family when it was her family who helped her financially to go to college. This double consciousness makes her attitude more arrogant, as she belongs to the African American community where she grew up, but she also considers herself part of a more elevated and educated class by attending college. This analysis also includes the image that Dee creates of herself by denying that she comes from a poor family or avoiding remembering the past. This image is a ‘psychological wall’ behind which she hides her past and through which she shows her new personality and way of life, which shows the insecurity the character experiences. She is not completely sure of who she is, she is between the two classes mentioned before, between her ‘old’ and ‘new’ life. The insecurity, as well as other psychoanalytic connections, can be related because of her family’s past negative experiences or fears. That is why her lighter color of skin than the rest of the family, the fact of has a college degree, and other differences make her afraid of being abandoned. Maggie and her mother had a good relationship when Dee was at college, so when she came back she felt different and this sense of feeling apart, made her not feel close to them. Moreover, in the short story, both sisters are presented as two opposite extremes, one being the contrary of the other and vice versa. Their connection and treatment towards each other are symbolized by the fire of their house, which influences the way they behave between them and with her mother. Maggie’s character also provokes empathy, because growing up feeling you’re not as worthwhile as your sister, who enjoys everything that you can’t afford becomes frustrating.

In conclusion, both theories of Marxism and psychoanalysis, help the reader understand some aspects of the short story that explain the symbolism of the work. As with Marxist theory, psychoanalysis is also a good way to understand Dee’s character, which is more complex than it seemed. To sum up, the story approaches black heritage in different ways, represented by the characters of Dee and Wangero. At the end of the story, Dee has finally come to a point where she flees and as a result, she restores the peace of Maggie. 

The theme of home and belonging is a wide theme, as has manifested in a number of stories. This is because home, being a central aspect of human existence, gets us thinking of such things as shelter and comfort. By definition, a home is where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family (Oxforddictionaries.com). According to this definition, home is the place where we always seek refuge and safety. Everyone wants to attain as much of these as possible. This is the theme that keeps the human beings thinking of such questions as who they really are, why they are the way they are, and why they strive belong to some group or home. The aim of this paper is to look into this theme as it manifests in the story ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker.

The story ‘Everyday Use’ begins with the account of the main character Maggie, who is constantly struggling between several attitudes towards her sister. This has arisen out of her perception of herself that has in turn been affected by the burn scars on her arms and legs. This has left her wondering if she should admire her sister or keep thinking of her physical appearances. Clearly, though she can be said to be having a physical home in which she stays with parents and siblings, she has problems with her sense of belonging to the family. So serious is this situation that it is impacting her physical body: “She walks like a lame animal”.

Dee feels much at home. She has a physical home, which gives her comfort and safety. In fact, she is so comfortable with this that Maggie thinks life has never known how to say ‘no’ to her. Besides, she is brighter, more beautiful and has a fuller figure. Despite the fact they happen to have lost their house to fire some time earlier on, she does not happen to have been injured physically, emotionally, or psychologically by the loss. This is the fire that apparently gave her sister the burns that impacted on her self-esteem and sense of belonging hitherto.

The persona of the story herself is physically at home, at least in the current home. However, something keeps bothering her throughout; memories of their former house burning. She says she often vividly hears the flames that razed their house down.as well, she feels Maggie’s arms trying to stick to her and her hair smoking of the fire, and her dress falling off into the flames that burns their house leaving them homeless for some time. These memories must be disturbing her, so much she often has disturbing dreams at night. That means something to her; being at home physically but emotionally disturbed about the past experiences.

Summing up, all these characters are avenues for the theme of home and belonging manifests. Each of these characters is at their own circle as far as being at home and belonging is concerned. While is comfortable at all circles, two are lacking and important aspect of home and belonging. The peace and sense of belonging is lacking for the persona and Maggie who are still nursing psychological and physical scars respectively. As such, the theme is well portrayed throughout the text, as each of the character is striving to attain the best that can be needed for comfort, safety and belonging. With this knowledge in mind, learning about the story more deeply is even more simplified and demystified.

Introduction

Culture refers to the ideas, conventions, behaviors, and ideals that a specific group of people embraces. On the other hand, identity is about recognizing what is suitable and authentic for oneself. When humans unconsciously interpret and combine signals from their surroundings into their individuality, they establish a cultural identity.

Discussion

Cultural identity can change since culture is adaptive. While some individuals go through life without assuming their cultural identity, people usually become aware of it when it is challenged. This grasp usually occurs when individuals are in different regions of the world or among people with different cultural standards. Nevertheless, cultural identity is significant because it determines how one understands and responds to such events.

One of the instances of elements of life associated with identity is music. If one takes one particular example of music closely related to cultural identity, it could be blues. According to the statistics about the preferences of Americans in musical genres in 2018, only a fifth of the population listened to blues (Statista, 2021). However, blues is especially important for African Americans. When Africans immigrated to the United States, they developed music that communicated their experiences of isolation and agony, as well as stories and sounds that recreated community, identity, and speech (Delgado-Norris, 2020). Moreover, blues songs still contain linguistic and cultural elements related to African Americans’ ancestry.

Conclusion

Therefore, cultural identity can be expressed and recognized in multiple aspects of daily life. Often, such elements resonate or conflict with the identities and experiences of other people. As such, blues music is not particularly popular throughout America, yet it remains a significant part and a distinctive aspect of the cultural identity of African Americans, bringing awareness of their roots and making African ancestry alive again.

References

Delgado-Norris, E. (2020). African linguistic elements and cultural practices in American blues.National Social Science Association. Web.

Statista. (2021). Music genres preferred by consumers in the U.S. 2018. Web.

Thesis and Introduction

The nineteenth century is remembered for its riches in literature and art. Stimulated by the activity in development and implementation of ideology, literature has seen a tremendous growth in both quality and number of stories poems and narratives. The thematic trend was complied with the sociopolitical environment and after war mood.

The increased number of civil rights activists and critics led to a wide spread bias against certain themes such as conflict and culture. To interrogate this thematic similarity and bias I shall interrogate two stories from two different authors (Barnet and Cain p 345-500).

Alice walker’s “Every Day” use tells the story of cultural social and ethnic conflict that is motivated by a conflict of ideas morals and values. Dee rejects the mainstream cultural pretext and proceeds to affiliate herself with a personalized and rather unaccepted heritage.

She fails to obey family traditions and heritage as a way of cutting back at the family history of oppression that she considers offensive and unacceptable.

The conflict between her new constructed culture and the tradition and culture that mama was brought up to know is an aftermath of the general mood of society after the effects of war and conflict that led to corruption of both morals and cultures.

Amidst many other themes such as power of education and women empowerment, the story makes an adequate disposition of conflict in the domestic arena as a representative sample of the conflict that was taking place at the time across the globe. The conflict in culture was mainly due to the difficulties that immigrants faced in embracing cultural transition. Dee was making an attempt at adjusting and transitioning to the new culture (p 50).

Amy tan on the other hand makes a rather detailed account of similar conflict and problems of cultural transition. She develops it based on two main dimensions. The internal conflict is one of cultural confusion that is motivated by varying standards of expectation.

Jing-mei looks into the mirror in frustration after her ambitious mother who had high hopes of her making it through in the new cultural context gave her tests that she could not apprehend because she had not learnt them her mother’s aggressiveness is her bid to divorce the cultural attitude towards women and she saw a great opportunity for her daughter (p3-8).

On the alternate end the cultural external conflict that is characterized by cultural transition is represented by daughters perception of their mothers broken English as stupid and the mothers on the other hand being impatient with their female children’s ability to perceive of cultural nuances of their native Chinese language and culture to their children. Cultural conflict and transition places these two stories on a common thematic realm.

Background

“Every Day” use is a story that captures the tumultuous period of afro Americans struggle to embrace and adjust to the social cultural and political values of the American society in the 1960s and early 70s. This period was characterized by a sudden interest in the American contribution in the American history buy both literature enthusiasts and literary scientist.

This period saw many black Americans make attempts at recognition in the political social and economic realm. The story therefore reflects this mood of cultural struggle that was motivated by the bleak history of slavery and slave trade. The story is developed amidst an ideological era that saw the rise and fall of many ideological regimes some peaceful and others violent (Harmon and Hugh, p 105).

“Two Kinds” on the other hand makes the case for the Chinese society’s apprehension of westernization through education and modernization. The onset of colonial influence brought education that developed conflicting morals and perceptions that stood in the way of cultural transition. The story captures this transition and the huddles that the 19th century Chinese cultural definition faced.

Analysis and Comparison

The two novels display a great since of similarity in both qualitative and quantitative aspects.

Quantitative Analysis

Power of Education

Education is depicted as a common source of cultural conflict in both stories. It is portrayed as standing in the way of cultural growth and transition. On one end, it acts as a bridge for the transition from cultural and primitive ideology and perception to modern and western ways.

Dee’s mother struggled to take her to school because she was denied education herself. As a child, her school faced closure and that was the end to her chance at an education despite her high ambition and optimism. Jing-mei’s mother on the other hand is confident and positive that her daughter will make it through any education in America. She gives her tests that she has not even learnt and admires the presenter on television and thinks the same of her daughter.

On the other hand, education is considered as a barrier to the passing on of culture. The older generations are not confident that their children will be able to pass the cultural nuances to their children. In turn, the older generation is seen to force cultural provisions on the younger generation.

Qualitative Analysis

Time

The setting of both stories in between the span of 1920 and 1970. They both reflect an element of youthful daughters who are faced with the problem of cultural transition into the American society. It also provides a stage for the relationship between mother and daughter as representatives of native culture and the modern western culture.

Place

All the memories of the mothers in the stories have a relatively common thematic similarity of cultural and traditional injustice that takes place in china for the two things story and America for the “Every Day” use story. Their daughters on the other hand have a chance at an American societal experience through education.

Conclusion

These stories convey a common affirmative tone that is representative of feminist ideology doing the mid and end of the 19th century. They capture the challenges that the 21th century generation faced in transitioning into new ways of the western trend.

Works Cited

Barnet, Sylvan and Cain, William .Literature for Composition. New York. Longman Publishing, 2005 p 345-500.

Harmon, William and Hugh, Holman .A Handbook to Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Prentice-Hall, 1999.

Tan, Amy. Two kinds.1989 p, 3-8. Web.

Walker, Alice. Everyday use. New York. Rutgers University Press, 1994 p3-229.

In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, the author places two sisters side by side for an afternoon of visiting. One of these sisters, Maggie, lives with her mother in a small, poorly built shack on the edge of the country and is planning to marry a somewhat unattractive but dependable man in their small town. As a child, she was caught in a fire and still bears significant scarring on her legs and arms, a fact that makes her shy and withdrawn.

The other sister, Dee, lives a beautiful life in the city with her good looks, her outgoing charm, and her refusal to be denied. She is described as having lived a charmed childhood, easily able to get her way with other people as a result of her natural charm and good looks while her brains enabled her to attain a higher level of education than either her mother or her sister. Her status with the man she travels with is unknown, but her attitudes and behaviors are that of a middle-class urban black woman attempting to recapture a sense of her heritage. Walker’s brilliant characterization illustrates that while both girls can be seen to honor their past and the cultural heritage from which they descended, their approaches to this past are as different as their appearances.

Throughout the story, both girls are seen to have a strong appreciation for their past. Whether it is to make fun of the scene later or to truly appreciate where she came from, one of the first actions Dee makes on her arrival is to grab her camera. “She stoops down quickly and 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.

When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house.” Dee happily accepts the traditional food her mother makes for her, the same food the mother and Maggie tend to eat all the time, which is also singled out as unacceptable by her companion. Dee’s reaction too much of the events of the visit are reminiscent of a person’s reaction to a historic theme park, attempting to make a connection with a way of life she has transcended yet feeling a sense of loss as a result, which is a connection Maggie lives every day of her life.

Both girls know and appreciate the many things around the house that have been created by one relative or another, Dee is able to recognize “Grandma Dee’s butter dish” and “the benches her daddy made for the table when we couldn’t afford to buy chairs” while Maggie tells her “Aunt Dee’s first husband whittled the dash … His name was Henry, but they called him Stash.” Despite the similarities, the girls’ interest in these things seems to hail from different sources.

The type of interest Dee shows in her surroundings is immediately depicted as approaching cultural awareness from a distance, like a theme park belonging to someone else’s world. While she apparently loves her mother and sister, “She wrote me once that no matter where we ‘choose’ to live, she will manage to come to see us. But she will never bring her friends,” it is also apparent that she takes little or no ownership in her own past. However, that she takes pride in the heritage as it is imagined in the city is revealed as she announces to her mother that she’s taken on an African name, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” although she was truly named after her aunt.

The items she takes from the house are all strongly associated with her culture and past, but she intends to put them to alternate uses within her home, “’I can use the chute top as a centerpiece for the alcove table,’ she said, sliding a plate over the chute, ‘and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher.’” She can’t understand why her mother might not allow her to ‘properly’ take care of something as valuable as the heritage quilt she’s dug out of her mother’s trunk.

Despite Dee’s overwhelming presence, Maggie is the first girl to be introduced in the story as it is she who has apparently helped her mother to make the yard “so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon. … It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room.” Thus, a part of the family’s heritage is revealed as sitting out in this type of yard, looking up into the old elm tree, and enjoying the evening’s breezes as compared to the more refined activities Dee might be involved in. Strongly contrasted against Dee in the education department, Maggie is more like her uneducated mother.

While she attempts to read to her mother in the evenings, “she stumbles along good-naturedly but can’t see well. She knows she is not bright.” She is apparently accustomed to doing things the way her mother did them, understanding the feel of the “small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood” of the dasher for the butter churn, and is comfortable living in the same way her mother has for years. In the argument over the quilts, Dee correctly assumes Maggie “would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags.” Maggie is thus seen as a quiet girl, unassuming and meek, who nevertheless has practical ideas and plans of her own.

Through characterization, Walker is able to depict two very different sisters not just in the way they are described physically, but also through their different approaches to life. While Dee is active, constantly in motion, and constantly adapting the world to her own uses, Maggie is quiet, often in the background, and ready to employ the tools of the world to practical uses. Dee wants the top to the butter churn because of its cultural significance, its obvious age, and its personal family history.

While Maggie appreciates all of these qualities as well, she values the churn top because without it, the rest of the churn is useless and she can no longer make butter. In the same way, Dee appreciates the hand-pieced quilts because of all the work and care that went into them as well as the historical significance of the fabrics used while Maggie appreciates them for all this history as well as the possibility of them keeping her warm in the winter nights and making her beds beautiful in the daytime.

Works Cited

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” 2008. Web.