Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis
Some Have Good Intentions
The 1960s marked the start of a new era in the American history, introducing one of the greatest victories over racism, the civil rights act. The civil rights act shined a new sun over the nation as a whole and over the African American community in specific, as it abolished segregation and discrimination in public places, and outlawed racism in workplaces. The multiple characters introduced to the reader in Alice Walker's short story “Everyday Use” represented the difference in culture and identities as in ante and post the civil rights movement. Dee stands out as the most controversial and complex character in the story, she represents the change that took place in the African American society, as she comes back to her hometown to visit her mother and sister Maggie. Dee may come across at some points in the story as a selfish, demanding and arrogant character who might disagree with her family's ways of life, she’s still an educated, cultured woman, who's struggling with finding the balance between the change and true identity of her own self. …show more content…
She had some remarkable fault finding powers that she used to drive people away from her including her first boyfriend, which is why she never had any friends. Dee had a very demanding personality since adolescence “Dee wanted nice things”, but as the story progresses Dee's wants become more of an intellectual than materialistic nature.(Walker 853) Throughout the whole visit Dee keeps asking mama to have different old item around the house that meant a lot to the family like the churn top and the dasher. The story took a very dramatic turn when Dee asked for the quilts made by her grandma, the same quilts that she once called very out of style when she was offered to take one of them to school . For the first time in her life she heard the
The 1960s marked the start of a new era in the American history, introducing one of the greatest victories over racism, the civil rights act. The civil rights act shined a new sun over the nation as a whole and over the African American community in specific, as it abolished segregation and discrimination in public places, and outlawed racism in workplaces. The multiple characters introduced to the reader in Alice Walker's short story “Everyday Use” represented the difference in culture and identities as in ante and post the civil rights movement. Dee stands out as the most controversial and complex character in the story, she represents the change that took place in the African American society, as she comes back to her hometown to visit her mother and sister Maggie. Dee may come across at some points in the story as a selfish, demanding and arrogant character who might disagree with her family's ways of life, she’s still an educated, cultured woman, who's struggling with finding the balance between the change and true identity of her own self. …show more content…
She had some remarkable fault finding powers that she used to drive people away from her including her first boyfriend, which is why she never had any friends. Dee had a very demanding personality since adolescence “Dee wanted nice things”, but as the story progresses Dee's wants become more of an intellectual than materialistic nature.(Walker 853) Throughout the whole visit Dee keeps asking mama to have different old item around the house that meant a lot to the family like the churn top and the dasher. The story took a very dramatic turn when Dee asked for the quilts made by her grandma, the same quilts that she once called very out of style when she was offered to take one of them to school . For the first time in her life she heard the