Walker's Dee
Alice Walker in "Everyday Use" shows one African American woman trying to "overcome" her past. This story is about two sisters, Maggie and Dee, and their mother. Maggie lives with her mother while Dee has moved out, gone to school, and created another life for herself. However Dee has issues left to resolve before she can become the woman she wants to be. Her conflicts over her heritage have made Dee unable to accept her past life and ashamed of her family. Dee uses separation strategies of changing her name, changing her view of family antiques, and physically moving away to convince herself that she is better than her family. Dee has turned her back on a part of her past and her family by taking the name of "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo" (177). Her reason for changing her name was because she "couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me" (177). It is a
Dee, while interacting with her family even goes as to say:You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. At first this is used when Dee leaves home to go to school (175). Dee's main goal is to show how far she has come from her roots. Dee also uses physical distance to separate herself from her family. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it. Then later Dee writes a letter home including, "no matter where we [Maggie and their Mother] 'choose' to live, she [Dee] will manage to come see us. This tells Maggie and her Mother that they can not depend on Dee to provide for them and that she is ashamed of them. The other object that Dee wants are some quilts that Dee refused to accept when she first left home that are now promised to Maggie. That Dee "never takes a shot without making sure the house is included" (177) implies that she wants to be able to capture her former life on film. (181) She is judging herself to be superior to her family. She is unable to accept these artifacts as they are; she feels she must change them to fit into her new life. But she will never bring her friends" (176). " She uses a Polaroid camera to capture pictures of her mother and sister.
Common topics in this essay:
Leewanika Kemanjo,
Maggie Dee,
Maggie Mother,
Maggie It's,
African American,
family dee,
changing name,
maggie dee,
unable accept,
maggie mother,
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Acceptance Essays
