Overview
Authors have different styles of presenting their views on a different aspect of the society. One of the themes the writers mostly use in their artwork is alienation. Alice Walker is one of the word artists who have explored this theme in her work “Everyday Use.” In this book, Alice has used the main character, Dee, to express her feeling on how society and many other factors such education can make one a stranger on his/her land and to his/her people. In her story, she shows through him how factors such as education, culture, and perception as well as race alienate Dee in different situation and perspectives. Education alienates Dee from his culture even if he tries to copy the African heritage. Alternatively, she alienates herself from the white culture and seeks to impose African culture into herself by changing her name and emulating Africans dressing codes, hairstyle and many others. Alternatively, Alice shows that the alienated characters face challenges and oppositions from different characters. For instance in her story, Alice explore the rift between Dee and Mama which is solemnly brought about by the difference in perception and many other issues (Muhammedzade & Obaid, 2011).
How do we know that the protagonist is impoverished? Is she content with her class? Why or why not?
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Poverty is one of the major factors that have been a challenge to many individuals during their course of the struggle to have their rights reclaimed and education. Poverty has reigned in many families and has acted as an obstacle in many perspectives. This seems to be what occupies Alice’s mind as she writes her story. In her story, she brings in the main character Dee whose family background is entirely not well of financially. Many issues prove that the main character in the story is economically challenged. The first instance is the setting of the protagonist character’s habitat. Through exclusively focusing on the environment where the protagonist lives, Alice shows how the character faces some financial quagmire. The setting features and descriptions used by the author to describe the main character habitat help us have a clue of the theme poverty. The house as described by the author does not even have a real window. It has some structures resembling a window inform of a hole cut on both sides like a ship pothole which is neither square nor round, and on the outside, rawhide is used to give support to the windows shutters up. Walker’s journey into the theme of poverty in her story continues inside the protagonist’s house. Inside the house, the family could only financially afford benches made of wood instead of having chairs. Alternatively, Walker continues bringing up the theme of poverty by showing us some objects which this family uses. For instance, the quilts that are used by this family are made by Mama from the scraps of her dress. These objects are not used by the family to preserve their family background or the culture from which they are coming from; they are used for survival purposes. Lastly, the poverty theme which haunts the main character is shown during her schooling. Her success in school is attributed to her mother’s determination. However, making her daughter successful in her education was not a walk in the park. Mama had to seek help from the church to finance her daughter’s education. They used to sell cupcakes to help her daughter to finish her schooling. All these factors are enough to justify the economic capability of the protagonist. The struggle of her family, the kind of items they use to survive and the tough economic time the mother underwent to finance her education justifies the theme of poverty in the story.
Walker in her story tries to justify that many people languish in poverty yet they don’t entirely accept this as a fact. For instance, the poverty status in this family does not impress the protagonist. This is shown by her perception in educating as a tool that alienates poverty. This is later depicted in her schooling as she raises herself in status above that of her family. She later changed her name, a sign that shows that she has abandoned her family and the one contributing factor is poverty the family is languishing in.
How do we know that she is African-American?
Through her story, Alice tries to show culture conflict by using the protagonists. From the viewpoint, Dee is a true black American, and in many instances, proofs through symbolism are given to justify her race. The protagonist wants to identify herself with African culture. She talks in Africans dialect; she later changes her name, freak out of quilts and many others.
The first scene where the true nature of the protagonist as a staunch black American is portrayed when the narrator describes the protagonist’s dressing code as well as her hairstyle. For instance, the protagonist proudly had sporting an Afro rather than white hair style. Her hair is also described by the narrator to be standing straight like the wool on a sheep”(20). This shows that her hair is not flat as most of the white ladies prefer. Alternatively, when the lady stepped out of the car, we can see the true Africa culture in her. The lady is decked out in a long flowery dress with orange as well as yellow color. These kinds of attires are attributed to Africans cultures. Through dressing in such a manner, she to some extent shows appreciation to her culture which is rooted in Africa. Alternatively, in her words, she disowned the white name. She says “I couldn't bear it any longer being named after those who oppressed me"(27). She went ahead and changed her name to African name Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo and claims that she cannot accept a name of those people who oppressed her forefathers. The people who were enslaved and oppressed as history makes us to believe are the Africans black Americans. These are enough proof that there last are black Americans. At the end of the story, it is Mama and Maggie that are well placed within the present and valid heritage. However, our lady is ironically misplaced and seems to be mixing cultures.
How does her alienation due to her race also connect with her education?
From the scenes and throughout the story, Dee is alienated from the society by her color. In many occasions, we have come across the protagonist defending her race through portraying her true African culture through her dialect and clothing. One of the contributing factors that have further alienated the protagonist with the existing race is education. The lady is highly learned and by so doing is confused and feels misunderstood by the family that raised her. Her education has enlightened her, and she has knowledge of the history of the black Americans. She has knowledge on the kind of life the blacks led during the slavery time, and for this reason, she rejects white’s name and changes her name to Africans. She claims that “I couldn't bear it any longer being named after those who oppressed me"(27). This further alienates her from the culture of the white people. Alternatively, it is her education that has alienated the protagonist from her family’s race. It reached a point where Maggie and Mama could not understand their fellow. Her perception had changed; she had a different perception of the reigning race more than her counterparts as asserted by Bausch (2015).
The protagonist’s daughter, Dee, who has embraced her African roots, accuses her mother of not understanding her heritage. Why? What is the situational irony at the end of the story ?
One of the biggest ironies in the story probably come where Dee rejects her real heritage for simple yet minima cultural ideal. The writer of the story suggests that the new culture that Dee has identified herself with is just rebranding her through juxtaposing her with her family. She thinks that her mama and sister are not in line with the real heritage due to their misunderstanding yet it is more of irony. She finds herself shrouded with imitations when she tries to dress as per her native Africans culture. Through the mixture of academic and romantic ideas of the pre-colonial Africa, Deer tries to reinvest herself to an Africa, but “Wangero” through her expensive mixture of the clothes and flamboyant gaudy jewelry make her look more like an African caricature than a true African woman. This brings a great irony.
Alternatively, there is an irony when the lady appreciates her Mama artifacts as African culture. The fact is that Mama used these items for survival due to her crippled economic status. She misguidedly claims that an item such as quilt which in the text is a symbol of poverty is her ancestry spirit. Instead of putting the items to the “everyday use,” she wants to fetishize these objects which further show that she is rejecting the heritage around her unknowingly. Dee put everything that was part of her family heritage when she went to school. The kind of life, the items they used and the perception of the family all gone with the education she receives, she now sees her family to be abandoning the heritage they should heave (Hong-fu, 2012).
Conclusion
Alienation is a theme that many authors use to express their view on how the misunderstanding of the different aspect of life makes people become detached from their society. This is the case that Alice Walker tries to express by using this theme in her story. She brings in a young lady caught between the thons of racism, education, and culture. Dee through the story is alienated from the different aspect of life by different factors. She is alienated from the family by inheriting education. She finds herself mixing up culture yet she could not realize in the bid of trying to become her true identity. In so doing, she changes her name, misunderstands her family, and alienates her from the family financial status and many others. As the story ends, it is ironic since we find that instead of coming closer to get an identity, Dee has even gone further from it.
References
Muhammedzade, A. P. D. B., & Obaid, N. A. (2011). Literary Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker.
Bausch, R. (Ed.). (2015). The Norton anthology of short fiction . WW Norton & Company.
Hong-fu, C. H. E. N. (2012). A Re-Evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker's Everyday Use for Grandmama [J]. Journal of Chongqing University of Technology (Social Science) , 6 , 019.
