Both “Kiswana Browne” by Gloria Naylor and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker focus on female characters with identities in conflict with the way in which they were raised. Kiswana, formerly Melanie, revolts against the older generation’s investment in politics of respectability, instead searching to reclaim her older, African roots. Kiswana is dedicated to a movement that advocates pride in being black, rather than a conformance to white normativity. This approach, unfortunately, splits the world into “American” and “African,” overlooking the fact that there may exist a confluence in “African American.” Similarly, Wangero, formerly Dee, searches to assume an identity with a greater African influence; however, her motivation for doing so results
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These conflicts underscore the degree to which they wish to distance themselves from their former lives. In Kiswana’s case, her argument with her mother focuses on their respective places in the civil rights movements. Mrs. Browne believes that working within the system through organizations like the NAACP is the best way to achieve black uplift. Kiswana, however, believes in a more radical approach. After Kiswana and her mother begin to argue about Kiswana having abandoned her education in favor of revolutionary activities, Kiswana goes as far as to accuse her mother of being a “white man’s nigger whose afraid of being black” (320). A severe insult, such language underscores the depth of sentiment that Kiswana has for her social movement. Clearly, the movement has influenced greatly the identity that she has assumed, from changing her hair to a more “African” style to bedecking her apartment in the slums with an African statue. Kiswana evidently desires to distance herself from her middle-class parents who are active contributors to the NAACP. While Dee also has an argument with her mother, their argument focuses more on the proper way of embracing their African-American heritage. Dee visits her mother’s home like a tourist, complete with taking posed photographs of her house and the livestock. Dee’s upbringing seems to have contributed nothing to the image she presents, wearing a bright red dress and bringing a beau with an African name. Her argument with her mother erupts after she demands to bring quilts made by her grandmother with family clothing to put on display in her house. Dee’s mother refuses, attesting that she has promised them to Maggie for her marriage. This results in a biting insult from Dee, “You do not understand,” she says to her mother (538). When her mother asks Dee what she does not
These conflicts underscore the degree to which they wish to distance themselves from their former lives. In Kiswana’s case, her argument with her mother focuses on their respective places in the civil rights movements. Mrs. Browne believes that working within the system through organizations like the NAACP is the best way to achieve black uplift. Kiswana, however, believes in a more radical approach. After Kiswana and her mother begin to argue about Kiswana having abandoned her education in favor of revolutionary activities, Kiswana goes as far as to accuse her mother of being a “white man’s nigger whose afraid of being black” (320). A severe insult, such language underscores the depth of sentiment that Kiswana has for her social movement. Clearly, the movement has influenced greatly the identity that she has assumed, from changing her hair to a more “African” style to bedecking her apartment in the slums with an African statue. Kiswana evidently desires to distance herself from her middle-class parents who are active contributors to the NAACP. While Dee also has an argument with her mother, their argument focuses more on the proper way of embracing their African-American heritage. Dee visits her mother’s home like a tourist, complete with taking posed photographs of her house and the livestock. Dee’s upbringing seems to have contributed nothing to the image she presents, wearing a bright red dress and bringing a beau with an African name. Her argument with her mother erupts after she demands to bring quilts made by her grandmother with family clothing to put on display in her house. Dee’s mother refuses, attesting that she has promised them to Maggie for her marriage. This results in a biting insult from Dee, “You do not understand,” she says to her mother (538). When her mother asks Dee what she does not