A Look Into &Quot;Everyday Use&Quot;

Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is about a mother and her two daughters. Dee, the eldest of the two and the most focused on plays the role of an antagonist. She functions as if she wants to forget where she came from, but can't because there is a great deal of her life that has been invested in their country old tin house. Dee also acts like a bridge for her family to the world that she explores and the world that she has been brought up in. She uses this bridge to conveniently go back and forth as she pleases. The reason for her appalling behavior is that she despises the life that her and her family lived. For example, when their house burnt down her mother thought to suggested that she danced around it because of her hatred for the house. Another example is when Dee changed her name to Wangero to escape the name of those who oppressed her, but she brings her boyfriend, who is Muslim, and eats the pork cooking that mother has prepared. All of the characters reveal something about Dee.

Hakim-a-barber shows that Dee is seeking a new way of life other than the one she knows, and a way that will allow her to cover up her heritage and shun it off even more. As stated previously, Dee changes her name to Wangero Leewinka Kemanjo because she didn't want to be reminded of those who she claims have oppressed her. In the 1970s U.S. Muslims where pro-black and were trying to erase the memory or anything that would have reminded them of slavery. As a result, Dee is being influenced by the teachings that Hakim-a-barber has been exposed to. However, she is able to pacify the need or the want to try and escape a life that is still being lived in her eyes the way of the oppressed.

Ms. Johnson reveals her lack knowledge of her heritage, but her lack of respect for it. As their sitting around the table Dee began to ask to take the churner top that her uncle made from a tree, but she gets the uncle's name wrong and the with no remorse she continues on by talking about the her plans to display it as a centerpiece. Then she goes on to ask Ms. Johnson for the two quilts that her, her mother, and her sister knitted over the course of time. When