I believe your culture affects everything you do within your life. As an example, in the book, ‘Lullabies for Little Criminals’ by Heather O’Neill, the main character Baby believes that the implications she makes of herself being experienced with drugs and alcohol make her look cool and more mature. This is due to…
“Everyday Use” symbolizes the importance of quilts and the value put upon them by a mother and her two children. “I try to teach my heart not to want things it can't have” once said Alice Walker. In many cases I relate this quote to the character Maggie in the short story “Everyday Use.” Maggie is shy and bashful because of her scars. She feels that her older sister Dee had had it made while they were coming up. Dee had gotten the chance to go to college while Maggie had stayed home with her mom. Maggie became more in touch and aware of her ancestral roots because she had stayed home with her mom. One important object often associated with “Everyday Use” is the quilts. Dee felt like she should have the quilt because to her she had deserved them more than Maggie did. She felt like she had understood the importance of the quilts and she would put them to proper use. Ironically enough, she said that…
A person's culture is not decided by your whole family’s culture but it is decided by you and your openness. In the personal essay “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee two sisters go separate way and follow two totally different cultures. In the story mira wanted to view the world through her family’s culture and view the world that way this. This is important because your culture makes a huge affect on how you see the world and people in the world. Also in the story, Bharati wants to go and follow a different culture than her family. This is important because she has taken a different road than the rest of her family has.…
The short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker reflects on the heritage of a family of African Americans. The majority of the African American population has forgotten where they came from. The Webster dictionary defines heritage as “ the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation.” Maggie, Dee or Wangero, and their mother, who is also the narrator, are the basic characters for this short story.…
People all over the world discover new cultures around and become curious on how it must feel to eat, dress, celebrate, honor, talk, and even respect the new aspects of the new culture they try to adjust to. People also tend to want society to consider them a different culture as they voluntarily change their cultural identity. Identity and culture has always been a big part of an individual's life, mainly because that is the only way to know the separation between the many human races of the world. Identity creates an individual profile with unique characteristics for a specific person. Culture flows through a being's blood, which is based upon their ancestors.…
Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” written in 1973 and it was widely studied and frequently anthologized short story, “Everyday Use” came out as one of the story collection In Love and Trouble. In “Everyday Use” she bring up many issue such as comparing relationship between heritage and tradition past. The story also question whether or heritage is something one use or something one possess.…
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, Walker dramatizes the “use and misuse of the concept of heritage”. (Christian). The three main characters each have their own meaning of what heritage means to them. Some individuals embrace and build upon their heritage. However, others may choose to preserve it and move in a different direction.…
Is it justified to accept cultural norms which may harm other groups and the world on a…
"Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self inside" - Kaufman (Anzuldύa 62). Coming to America and speaking more than one language, I often face similar situations as Gloria Anzaldύa and Amy Tan. Going to high school where personal image is a big part of a student 's life is very nerve racking. American Values are often forced upon students and a certain way of life is expected of them. Many times, in America, people look down on people who do not accept the American Way of Life. The struggle of "fitting in" and accepting the cultural background is a major point in both essays, _Mother Tongue_ by Amy Tan and _How to Tame a Wild Tongue_ by Gloria Anzaldύa, which the authors argue similarly about. Both essays can be related to my life as I experience them in my life at home and at school.…
It can depend on the people that are around you, sometimes whatever they do can affect your ways of thinking towards your beliefs. No matter how you feel about your culture not one has the right to brainwash you and change the way you think. Influence on beliefs-Some people form their beliefs by the people that were around them during childhood or the way have developed their own opinions later on in life. Your beliefs could affect the way you think and feel about other individuals. For example, if your raised in a family were you had the Buddhist belief then your peroration to the world would not be similar to others that hold different beliefs than you.…
Alice Malsenior Walker is an African American author and activist who write of various personal experiences, including the black woman’s struggle. Walker describes herself as a “womanist: a woman who loves other women… Appreciates and prefers woman culture, woman’s emotional flexibility… and woman’s strength… Loves the spirit… Loves herself, regardless”. Walker writes through her feelings and the morals that she has grown with. One of her famous quotes, "It is important to remember yourself," quoted from her appearance at a Miami Book Fair in 1989, where she discussed her 1988’s essay collection, including The Temple of My Familiar, relates to her short story Everyday Use. By not remembering who you are you can grow to be disconnected from yourself. Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use successfully shows readers how it is possible for one to lose sight of what is important. This essay describes how Walker designed the story to reveal to readers the values of serving heritage and culture. Through the perspective of the protagonist “Mama,’ Walker shows the differences between the two sisters,…
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Mama, the narrator of the story, is rather distant with her daughter Dee and dreams about reconciling with her on a television show. Specifically, she imagines Dee expressing gratitude for all that she has done for her, while embracing her (Mama) “with tears in her eyes (Walker 315).” It is obvious that Mama doesn’t understand her daughter’s life choice to adopt an African lifestyle and feels that Dee is rejecting her origins and family. Furthermore, the reader can see that Mama has a troublesome relationship with Dee by the amount of tension between them. This strained relationship becomes clear when Dee “went to the trunk at the foot of (Mama’s) bed and started rifling through it (Walker 320).” The narrator…
Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today. She loves them for the way they look. Mama, on the other hand, views the things from her mother as artifacts. She loves the items more than how they look. She admires the quilts because of their everyday use. Transformations take place between these characters. Dee’s transformation is more external than it is internal. She shows her transformation in the way she speaks, the clothes she wears, and her judgement. Mama’s transformation is more internal. She begins to see Dee’s real thoughts, and she stands up against her. When she takes the quilts away from Dee, she doesn’t only stand up for herself, but Maggie, as…
For example, Eric Foner writes about “Manuel Gamio on a Mexican-American Family and American Freedom,” which talks about one of the millions of Mexican immigrant families that arrived in United States between 1900 through 1930. (VF 73) Mr. Santella and his family which includes his wife, his five girls, and his two boys, set foot in the United States, San Antonio, Texas. At the time, they were considered higher end living among the other Mexican immigrants, but they were just people of the working classes. After five years in the United States, the Santella family except for the father and mother assimilated American living style and customs; three of the seven children had married to an American partner. Although the mother did not grow accustom to the lifestyle, she grew like the life in the United States because of the freedom and safety it had over Mexico, but disapprove the way young women act in the United States of America. Unfortunately, the youngest daughter adapted to the American custom the most. She wanted her freedom and independence. This led to a job where she can pay for her own dresses, cosmetics, and luxury good. In my experience, I can relate the youngest daughter. Even though my parents are immigrants of the United States, I am born and raised in the United States. Often times, my mom and grandma would criticize me for the way I view and do things like…
Meeting people of other cultures has given me a new understanding of how my friends have felt because they looked or talked differently from people who have grown up in the American culture. People of other cultures may speak different languages than a lot of us do. However, different cultures have to learn to speak English when they move to the United States. Can you imagine what it must be like for these different cultures to have to learn a new language? For instance, I have a friend who had to learn English when she moved from India. She still has trouble because of the differences between her native language and English. On the other hand, some of these cultures have different religions and some have similar religions, but their rituals may be different. People in the United States may not agree with some of these religions, but I do not think we have the right to take away any of their religions. For example, I have a friend who practices paganism. She has a hard time because this is not a recognized religion by most people. Most of the people I have seen from other cultures have a strong work ethic. These are the people who put in more hours than required, stay late to finish the job, and finish the job right. For instance, one of my friends is working two jobs to help support her…