Everyday Use
Everyday Use by Alice Walker is written from a first person point of view. The narrator is the mother. In the story the mother has two daughters, Maggie and Dee. You can notice that the relationship between the mother and Dee is a complicated one. Dee compared to her sister Maggie is much more independent, where Maggie is more reliant on her mother. An important factor as to why Maggie is so dependent on her mother is because in the past the family experienced their home being burned down, unfortunately Maggie was injured from that incident causing her to have no choice to rely on her mother. Both Mama and Maggie are uneducated women, whereas Dee went to college and has a full education.
At one point in the story Dee comes to visit her mother after many years of not seeing her. The mother truly wants to rekindle her relationship with Dee, however that is not how Dee feels towards her mother. In a way it felt like Dee held a form of resentment towards her mom. You can really feel that after finding out that Dee changed her name because she felt that she was given the name Dee was given to her by her oppressors. Little did she understand that the name was passed down to her through her family line. Over all I can feel for the mother, her daughter Dee is completely denying where she came from, her own heritage that she should hold more dear. Heritage isn't something you find for yourself and follow, it is something passed down through your family, thus why it is called heritage. Even towards the end of the story you can understand that the relationship between the mother and Dee is too damaged to fix. I felt that it was a very understandable story. Many families out in the real world are far from perfect. So it is a truly relatable ending to this story. Not everyone accepts their families heritage.
Good blog post.
ReplyDeleteThis story demonstrates how many try to change themselves all that they can - not realizing that they cannot change that one thing: heritage. Some people are even desperate to becoming another person and will go extremely far to achieve this. We see this in this story. Dee sent off to school to escape her home, changed her name and her appearance, shows up visiting but hides behind her shades and acts like a tourist rather than a family member. Indeed, as you said, "Not everyone accepts their families heritage." and Dee definitely does not.