Culture In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

Improved Essays
Have you ever wondered why someone does that one thing that you think is weird or wrong? That’s because you have a different culture or beliefs than that other person. Culture impacts how you and others view the world a considerable amount of the time. I believe that culture is what you do on a daily basis and what you think is right or wrong so if you are looking around and you see someone doing something that you think is weird and that they shouldn't be doing that it is because you have a different culture than them.

There are a lot of different examples and ways to explain why I think what culture does have an affect on how people view the world, for example. From the story Everyday Use there is a part in the story were they both want to have these blankets and Dee the one who moved away and got an education wanted to have them and hang them up on a wall and not use them as blankets. But Maggie the one who stayed home and helped her mom
…show more content…
And I used this example because it shows that they both wanted to do different things with the blankets because they have different culture. Dee moved away and her culture started to fade away because she was around other people and was learning what they do and saw people do different things with old and things that are important to them and Maggie just kinda did what her culture has been telling her to do and has been doing. My second example about how culture affects how you view the world is from a another story called Two Kinds, the reason I used this story is because this whole story is kinda about how this little girl named Nikan wanted to be something that her mom did not want to be, and that was because her mom grew up and was born in China so she was raised differently and taught

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Dee's assault upon Maggie is an assault upon the storyteller, as well. Dee's scrutinizing of Maggie's utilization of the blankets backpedals to the natural contrast between the two sisters. By Maggie's putting the bedcovers to ordinary utilize, she will submerge herself in her underlying foundations. Dee will simply hang the bedcovers some place to enhance a space. She will see them and impart them to any other person that sees them, yet she will never encounter them completely.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the book Stanger’s to these Shores they described culture as a set of societal elements shared by a group of people passed from generation to generation ( p.26). Culture is one reason we cannot all get along. Cultural values and beliefs that are being passed down form generation to generation is known as cultural transmission. There are two types of culture, material culture and nonmaterial culture. Material culture includes foods, clothing, art, and weapons.…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The short story “Everyday use,” focuses on a small family consisting of two sisters and their mother however, the story tends to revolve around the sisters, Dee and Maggie. Dee grew up differently than her sister Maggie. Dee’s mother said ”She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with lots of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know,” but Maggie said that she never had an education herself, she knew she wasn’t bright. This was because her school closed down when she was only in second grade, so she didn’t get a chance to get educated (Walker,60). The sisters also differ in their attitude.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1970’s the African Americans made changes in their lives. They decided to finally live out their heritage instead of being ashamed for it. Alice walker’s acquainting short story “Everyday Use” exposes the misunderstanding of some of the 1970’s black society for its heritage through the character of Dee by her prideful and arrogant attitude. When Dee was younger she was not proud to come from her black heritage.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyone has a kind of culture that helps form their views on the world. In many incidents culture is the main cause for the opinions formed to describe how people feel about the world. Although culture may not play a major role in some lives, it does heavily influence many others standpoint on situations. However when a person disregards their culture their viewpoint on the world is most liable to change at any point and time.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Culture is, “the entire way of life of a group of people” (Ferris, Stein, 2014: 77). A sociologist would see this as the large distinction between people and what makes them diverse. The custom’s that people celebrate, their holidays. If someone from the United States was to move to another country, it could shock them with how different some cultures do things compared to the United States. Having a large and vast diversity must include people who have a different culture than you.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Often, people tend to look at other people’s cultural practices as being odd or out of the norm. This is a very common reaction when trying to study and understand the different cultures around the world. Many people are taught a set of beliefs and practices from a very young age that will stick with them for their whole lives and even be passed on to the generations after them. Cultural relativism is when one looks at their own culture from an outsider’s point of view and another culture from an insider’s point of view. Looking from an insider’s perspective is known as the emic perspective.…

    • 1947 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For instance, Dee would only consider the quilts of value and show them off if they fit her requirements of attractiveness while Maggie would treasure the memories of her ancestors culture seemed between the quilt regardless of the way they looked. The timid and homely Maggie also finds comfort and encouragement in the quilts which leads one to believe that this, along with every other striking difference, their mother chose Maggie as the rightful receiver of the…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Basics of Living In the short story “Everyday Uses” by Alice Walker she uses everyday objects or scenarios that people are faced with even in today’s society in her story. This story has everything in a nut shell , it mainly talks about cultural heritage ; however she also talks about race , tradition , family , education , and even how to stand up for one’s self . In this paper it will be shown how those 5 things can still be related in today’s society .Everybody has some experience or exposure to one of those themes. Race is one of society’s way of grouping humans into a large and distinct group according to their cultural, genetic, anatomical, historical, ethnic, religious, geographical, linguistic, and/or social association.…

    • 1357 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Surprisingly, Dee does not seem overly upset about not obtaining the quilts but believes Mama is making the wrong choice. For once, Mama witnesses Maggie give a real smile and it has to do with the knowledge Mama shows Maggie’s feelings hold value and she cares about Maggie 's happiness as…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The main conflict of the story "Everyday Use" is that Dee wants the quilt to flaunt it with her friends, still her mother wants to give the quilt to Maggie her sister, simply, because she believes Maggie will make use of it every day, not just flaunting their legacy every day. The mother at last has had enough of Dee’s conceit/vanity and being self-centered. She informs Dee that she can’t have the quits on account of, they belong to Maggie. Sadden about the news, Dee goes on to say that Maggie will overuse the quilts by using them every day, and ruin them. Her sister in an effort rationalize about the situation offers Dee other quilts that her mother has made, but Dee pays her no attention.…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dee can only see her family through external objects and artifacts. During the argument between Mama and Dee, Maggie gives the ok to take the quilts and stated that she can remember her Grandma Dee, the maker of the quilts, without the quilts. Maggie being different than Dee in how they view she has viewed her life, carries the family heritage and history within herself. While Dee looks at physical history, Maggie has the learned skills of quilt making. Maggie remembers her family and the time they shared because she wasn’t focused on the outside world.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Despite the fact that narrative perspective is generally considered a fundamental element in narrative comprehension, its effect on how we get immersed into reading, identify with fictional characters, and how much we like the story remains unclear,” (How narrative perspective influences reading). According to this statement, the point of view determines a lot for characters. This is why switching from telling the story from Mama’s point of view to Dee’s or Maggie’s point of view would make such a difference. Dee comes off a little harsh in some parts of the story. For example towards the end of the story when Mama tells her no for the first time, Dee leaves and says, “Your heritage,’ she said, and then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, ‘You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is shown when Mama recalls that she asked Dee if she would like a quilt when going away to college, and Dee had said no because the quilts were "outdated," yet now suddenly they mean so much to her. The story ends with Dee thinking she knows everything about her true heritage and that Mama and Maggie are very wrong. The two accept how Dee feels and let her leave because they realize the irony in the situation and know that they are the ones who truly know what heritage…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Everyone in existence is set apart by culture. It is what helps every individual learn how to act and handle themselves, which makes everyone different. Culture is a place of acceptance and providing each individual with how and why they should act like they do. It protects and brings people, a group, together. “Culture refers to sets of learned and patterned behaviors and beliefs that a group of people view as reasonable, normal, and timeless” (MindEdge, 2.05, 2016).…

    • 2774 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Superior Essays