20th Century American Identity

Issues of identity in the 19th century and 20th century American Literature In the American Literature the major issue in every writer’s works was identity. Many people struggled to find their own identity. Some succeeded, some failed. The same issue will appear in the following works. In Good country people, the main character Joy/Hulga suffers an identity crisis just like Dee, from Everyday use by Alice Walker and the Swede, from The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane. All of these characters have distinct features which makes them unique and appealing to the reader’s eye. Each one of them had suffered or passed through painful experiences in order to find their inner selves. The first appearance of Hulga, as Joy, came through the thoughts
She is also received a proper education, but didn’t received a Ph.D. in philosophy like Joy/Hulga. Education has separate Dee from her family, and also from her true self. Her thirsty of knowledge has led to her alienation from her family and to a misinterpretation of her own tradition. In the short story, Everyday use, Dee is seen as a materialistic, complex and modern woman. Her vision of culture and heritage, which is represented by the quilt, depends on “trendiness” of the thing. Her mother described her daughter, in a paragraph, as
“used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant under her voice.... pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits we seemed to understand” (pag.316). Heritage is an important part of a person’s life and it can tell the person where it came from and in the same time helps the person to reach its destiny. In the short story, Dee misunderstood the meaning of heritage. She knows very well what she wants to do when she attempted to “take” the quilts which her mother had promised to her sister,