Identity and Heritage
In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, we are introduced to a time when the African American culture and identity underwent a renaissance in terms of identity and hat it meant to be an African American in the United States. The author highlights the change in what heritage the modern-day African American identifies with through the character Dee contrasting this with the older culture through the character Mama. Another central theme that emerges is the identity of what it means to be a woman. This paper aims to describe the transformational changes that two characters underwent as a result of what they value and the choices they make.
Mama is an elderly woman and a mother to two daughters of different traits, Maggie and Dee. We are introduced to how much she values both her daughters early in the story as we are told she was waiting for one daughter, Dee in the yard that she and Maggie had begun rehabilitating. While it seems that she values both her daughters equally, the author introduces that she may have a bias for Dee. The author presents how Mama desired and dreamt of appearing on TV with Dee by her side being appreciated for the woman she manages to raise. This is contrasted with what she thinks of Maggie equating her to the character of a fear-stricken dog. However, Mama’s preference seems to change later in the story when she stands up for Maggie defending that the quilts promised her will remain with her although Maggie was willing to give them up.
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Mama grew up in the late ’20s and back then African Americans were not accorded much in terms of public policy and social development. She qualifies this when she says in 1927 “colored asked fewer questions than they do now” owing to this she never proceeded with her education beyond the second grade. Because of her experiences working odd jobs we see a transformation in what she values in education by the effort she puts in raising money together with the church to send Dee to the school in Augusta. Mama had taken the role of a maverick woman in the work she did. We are introduced to her description of herself as having man working hands. Later in the story, she says she identified more with a man’s job and that she loved milking cows until one hurt her in 1949. Now she entertains the idea of singing at the church choir although she had never been good at it once the last dependent in her family i.e. Maggie gets married and leaves the house. In addition to this Mama had transformed in the value she put into where she lives after the first fire burnt down their first home as she says that she deliberately turned her back on the house. The house is described as having no windows just some holes cut in no particular shape.
Dee is introduced as a beautiful, intelligent, stern and ambitious educated young woman through the perceptions her mother has of her. These same traits predisposed her to a superiority complex as described through how she treated people. When Maggie asks Mama about Dee’s friends, she recalls that the majority of them fell in line behind Dee and that Dee was once courted by “a boy Jimmy T she didn't have much time to pay to them but turned all her faultfinding power on him.” Later on, he left her and she didn’t properly recover from this. In this scenario, we see a form of transformation when contrasted with the fact that she came home to visit together with a man, Asalamalakim and in their interaction identified more with him.
Dee is described early on in the story as having a desire for nice things evidenced by the “yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she'd made from an old suit.” She was always looking out. However, on her visit home, she desires more of her heritage. One outright transformation she undergoes is evidenced by changing her name from Dee to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo claiming that her former name held the memory of her oppressors. These can also be inferred from her association with Aslamalakim. Wangero now desired the old heritage when she starts by asking for an old churn table and later on savagely fighting for old quilts promised to Maggie.
Aside from her desire to possess old heritage items we are shown a desire for the old African American knowledge as well. Earlier in the story, Mama describes how Dee “ 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 .”However, later in the story, Dee is described as looking at her mother with hatred when she mentions that Maggie knew how to quilt.
In conclusion, the transformation that is seen in the characters Mama and Dee is the desire for improvement of their African American heritage and identity both by seeing once discarded value in the old through the quilts and by ensuring striving forward towards the new through Mama educating Dee and passing down skills and tradition to Maggie.
References
Walker, A. (1994). Everyday use . Rutgers University Press.
