The Civil Rights Movement In Everyday Use By Alice Walker
All throughout 20th century America, African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dorothy Height were fighting hard for what they believed were human rights that could not be denied, such as the right to vote or the right to be served in a place like a restaurant. All the while, this civil rights movement was distinguished by the work of countless artists, authors, singers, and humanitarians who made the public aware of injustices done. These works helped to inspire and encourage fellow African Americans to protest for their rights, but also served to provide a first-hand account to future Americans reading of what life was like throughout this ordeal. Through a combination of the historical and biographical lenses, authors such as
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Especially after the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, African Americans were ready to invent a new kind of modernism. This might best be shown by the character Dee in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, in which she changes her name and style because it is the new, popular thing to do. The quilts that Dee loved so much could be said to symbolize different patches of black culture being stitched together in unity to form something wonderful. Critic Sam Whitsitt says about Dee, “What Dee doesn’t want to see… is that link between herself and that place she came from… it is because Dee refuses to see herself as part of that whole that her relationship to the churn handle comes to be metonymic, which is then what allows the reading which sees Dee as turning those parts of the whole into mere things, or aestheticized objects” (Whitsitt, 450). What becomes obvious to the reader, as Whitsitt pointed out, is how materialistic Dee is regarding her heritage, and how she only wants things just to have them and exploit them. At that same time, African Americans were emerging with their own television networks, shows, television personalities, and even a new genre of sitcoms. Dee’s vivacity and forthright attitude clearly stands to represent how she and her fellow African Americans felt at that time of new independence, and what these new changes may have
Especially after the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, African Americans were ready to invent a new kind of modernism. This might best be shown by the character Dee in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, in which she changes her name and style because it is the new, popular thing to do. The quilts that Dee loved so much could be said to symbolize different patches of black culture being stitched together in unity to form something wonderful. Critic Sam Whitsitt says about Dee, “What Dee doesn’t want to see… is that link between herself and that place she came from… it is because Dee refuses to see herself as part of that whole that her relationship to the churn handle comes to be metonymic, which is then what allows the reading which sees Dee as turning those parts of the whole into mere things, or aestheticized objects” (Whitsitt, 450). What becomes obvious to the reader, as Whitsitt pointed out, is how materialistic Dee is regarding her heritage, and how she only wants things just to have them and exploit them. At that same time, African Americans were emerging with their own television networks, shows, television personalities, and even a new genre of sitcoms. Dee’s vivacity and forthright attitude clearly stands to represent how she and her fellow African Americans felt at that time of new independence, and what these new changes may have