Alice Walker Heritage Research Paper

Alice Walker used her writing to convey a message to African Americans. She used her character to show that although one might try to remove himself or herself from a race they will always be connected to it. The situation Dee is going through is generational issue for African Americans. They are always on a constant search to find their place in this world. Walker exemplifies this in

Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," is a story about a poor, African-American family and a conflict about the word "heritage." In this short story, the word "heritage" has two meanings. One meaning for the word "heritage" represents family items, thoughts, and traditions passed down through the years. The other meaning for the word "heritage" represents the African-American culture.

Alice Walker demonstrates the importance of heritage through Dee's thoughtless actions and Maggie's actions during her daily life.

Heritage is something that people see in various ways. When many people think of heritage they think of past generation and where their family comes from. Other people place their heritage on the value of things, such as old quits that are made from something sentimental. In Everyday Use this is exactly how Maggie thinks of heritage. She wants the quits that were handmade out of her grandma’s dresses because to her that is a sign of her heritage. Alice Walker’s story is based on heritage. The narrator of the story has two daughters who could not be more different. One daughter, Dee, is beautiful and cares a lot about finding her place in the world, and about fashion. Maggie on the other hand is very practical. She does not see any reason

Heritage has an influential role in every individual’s life. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a short story that portrays two sisters’ from a poor African American home and their conflicting views on the value and meaning of heritage. Maggie, the younger sister, is uneducated but truly appreciates where she comes from. Dee, the oldest sister, is an educated college student but her she has a warped idea of heritage. Alice Walker uses the characters, point of view and symbolism to develop the main theme of heritage.

     Alice Walker is an African American essayist, novelist and poet. She is described as a “black feminist.”(Ten on Ten) Alice Walker tries to incorporate the concepts of her heritage that are absent into her essays; such things as how women should be independent and find their special talent or art to make their life better. Throughout Walker’s essay entitled “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” I determined there were three factors that aided Walker gain the concepts of her heritage which are through artistic ability, her foremothers and artistic models.

In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the message about the preservation of heritage, specifically African-American heritage, is very clear. It is obvious that Walker believes that a person's heritage should be a living, dynamic part of the culture from which it arose and not a frozen timepiece only to be observed from a distance. There are two main approaches to heritage preservation depicted by the characters in this story. The narrator, a middle-aged African-American woman, and her youngest daughter Maggie, are in agreement with Walker. To them, their family heritage is everything around them that is involved in their everyday lives and everything that was involved in the lives of their ancestors. To Dee, the narrator's oldest

There were two attitudes towards culture in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use.” One was expressed through Dee and the other expressed through Maggie. Dee despised the way her mother and sister were living and avoided people from knowing her family. She was too embarrassed of the true nature of her heritage and tradition. She moved away from her mother and sister in order to live a completely different lifestyle and had adopted the modern culture.

While reading “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the differences between the two sisters in the story are instantaneously apparent. However, these aren’t differences that you would normally see between sisters. The theme throughout the story originates from the principle of heritage, and it’s simple to contrast the sisters when discussing that concept. For Dee, throughout her visit it continuously seems as if she only desires artifacts from her childhood home for their artistic significance. However, as for Maggie, the artifacts mean much more because they are truly part of her identity and culture.

Alice Walker is an American writer who was born in Putnam County, Georgia on February 9, 1944. She married Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a white lawyer, and together they moved to Jackson, Mississippi, becoming the first interracial couple in Mississippi. Walker and Leventhal had a child named Rebecca. They later divorced after nine years of marriage. Her literary works are wonderful, especially her short story, “Everyday Use”, which features three main characters, Mama, Maggie, and Dee (Wangero), whose relationship is tense and unique.

Some people feel ashamed or annoyed with their heritage until such traits become popular in society. Walker calls attention to this issue through her writing. She states, “ She wrote me once that no matter where we ‘choose’ to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends”(Walker, Page 251). Many find it difficult to balance social and family life. For some, making a good impression in society is so important that it completely overshadows everything else. This desire to be successful in the eyes of society can cause some to even discard all connections to their heritage. Especially if they believe that their heritage is not popular to the masses. This is harmful to society in general because acts such as disconnecting

In “Everyday Use” the narrator understands the importance of cultural heritage, suggesting that children should appreciate their heritage as it is passed down. In the story the narrator’s daughter, Dee, has just come home to visit her mother and her sister and they discover she decided to change her name, “’What happened to ‘Dee’?’ ‘She’s dead,’ Wangero [Dee] said… ‘You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie,’ … ‘But who was she named after?’ asked Wangero ‘I guess after Grandma Dee.’ I said. ‘ And who was she named after?’ asked Wangero ‘Her mother.’” This shows that Dee’s name is a family name that has been passed down through the generations. Dee changed her name abandoning the heritage she wants to preserve so badly. Later

In everyday use the narrator understands the importance in of cultural heritage suggesting that children should appreciate their heritage as it is passed down. “She can have them, Maggie said” to her mom. “I can remember Grandma Dee without the quilts”. This represents that Maggie doesn’t need objects to remember the times she had with her grandma. Dee wants the quilts to use as art and not to use to remember her family. Maggie appreciates what she has and had, and her heritage. “No mama” she say’s. “Not Dee, its Wangero Leewanika kemanjo”. “What happened to Dee”? “She’s dead”. “I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who appress me”. This represents that Dee doesn’t want anything to do with her past. She just wants to move

Alice Walker is an African-American woman’s activist/feminist and author who was born in the early 1940s, in Eatonton, Georgia. Walker lived in the the rural south at a time when there were heavy poverty and racial violence amongst most African Americans. The circumstances that Walker faced ended up contributing to the person that she is today and it is reflected in many of her novels. Even throughout the trials and tribulations that Walker endured, she was still able to succeed in life. As a young child, Walker had an accident with a BB gun and ended up going blind in one eye. Because of this injury, this turned Walker into a very timid and shy child, Walker eventually graduated and left home to go to college and later got involved in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Many years later in Walkers young adult life, she endured major depression from having to deal with the termination of her pregnancy. In the 1960s, she returned to Mississippi, where she met a Jewish civil rights law student named Mel Leventhal, where they eventually married and moved to Mississippi. Alice eventually got pregnant, but unfortunately miscarried the baby. Over the years, she channeled many of the experiences that she faced into fictional stories about the lives of blacks in America, especially woman in the South. The characters in Walkers writings faced a lot of the same trials that Walker herself endured such as, racism, violence, discrimination of woman, low self-esteem, and etc.

In the essay “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” African- American author Alice Walker talked about her mother’s real-life stories, which came from her mother’s lips as naturally as breathing. Her mother's gift for storytelling had a positive influence on Walker's development as becoming a writer. Also, Alice Walker was greatly influenced by Zora Neale Hurston who was an African- American novelist. Her grandmother and mother suppressed their emotions and natural human instinct because they were black women. Alice Walker described about the story of African- American women’s suppressed life.