Gender Roles In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Mothers play a big role in not only everyday life but in fiction, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan both have mothers that play pivotal characters in family self-acceptance of cultural experience set against a larger culture in a wealthy country. Both mothers play their roles differently in the ways they present themselves, as well as the way they represent their cultures. Mothers teach their children how to represent their cultures in the world, and accept themselves for who they are and who their family is. Acceptance of a culture not majorly represented in a wealthy country has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the mothers in these stories deal with those disadvantages with a mindset that only a mother …show more content…
The family in “Everyday Use” are African American, so for the time this story was set in, African Americans did not have the same opportunities that were given to the larger culture of white people. Due to this separation, Mama’s and Dee’s view of their culture also separates. Dee becomes very involved (maybe too involved), whereas Mama lived through family culture and not the culture of her ancestors. Mama gives off the feeling of intimidation for Dee’s views. The separation of cultures led to a change in the family’s acceptance (particularly Mama and Dee) of one another. A major theme in “Everyday Use” is the meaning of heritage. Dee constructed a new heritage for herself, rejecting her real heritage from the anger of how she views an oppression history in her family. Mama tried to be a voice of reason for her heritage for her daughter, but her daughter fueled by anger refused to listen. Their very different views of what heritage is, shows true meaning behind their beliefs. Mama believes that family objects are infused with the presence of the people who made them, whereas Dee sees them as tokens, but has no real connection to …show more content…
With Mom having grown up in China with strict Chinese culture, Waverly is growing up in a part of America that is also strongly influenced by Chinese culture but also heavily surrounded by other cultures. Both Mom and Waverly must adjust to the world that they are both experiencing. Waverly chooses to put her focus on chess to allow herself a freedom from the world that her mother keeps her in, she is put in a box by her mother’s unchanging beliefs and insecurities. Waverly would have been able to enjoy chess without her mother, but her mother gave her the extra push to be great at the game. Although the game may seem to be the focus of the story, it comes second to the relationship between mother and daughter. They both believe in their own cultures allowing a miscommunication in their relationship that wouldn’t have been there without their cultural