Success and Estrangement in “Everyday Use” After the Civil Rights movement, many black Americans sought to reconnect with their African roots in order to create a more dignified alternative to their history of prejudice and oppression in the United States. Alice Walker, in her short story “Everyday Use,” criticizes those who tried to forget their real American heritage by creating the character Dee, a caricature of the Pan-African movement. At the beginning of the story, Walker characterizes her as desperate to escape the downtrodden lifestyle of her family and eager to “make it” as a black woman in a white man’s world. When Dee visits her mother and sister, her actions are perfectly consistent with this character that Walker skillfully
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She has relentless determination to succeed which Walker illustrates with Dee’s stare. “She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time” (Walker, 168). Sam Whitsitt makes the observation that the concentration Dee uses to stand up to whites in the South estranged her from her black family. “But making it, for Dee, and no doubt many others, had a price. The force required to stare the white world down was equaled by the intensity of a gaze, which burned her links to the past” (Whitsitt, 448). It is exactly this confidence and determination that cause her to seem arrogant and pretentious when she interacts with her …show more content…
She wants to be able to show people how far out of the ashes she has risen to her successful station in life. Dee’s desire to use the old quilts for decoration rather than for everyday use shows a major misunderstanding on her part. The historical and familial value of the quilts does not come from looking at them, but from continuing to use them and repair them. “Dee views her heritage as an artifact which she can possess and appreciate from a distance instead of as a process in which she is always intimately involved” (Piedmont-Marton, 45). Dee’s aloof attitude about her family history comes from her sense that she has succeeded in life and is now distinguished from her humble
She has relentless determination to succeed which Walker illustrates with Dee’s stare. “She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time” (Walker, 168). Sam Whitsitt makes the observation that the concentration Dee uses to stand up to whites in the South estranged her from her black family. “But making it, for Dee, and no doubt many others, had a price. The force required to stare the white world down was equaled by the intensity of a gaze, which burned her links to the past” (Whitsitt, 448). It is exactly this confidence and determination that cause her to seem arrogant and pretentious when she interacts with her …show more content…
She wants to be able to show people how far out of the ashes she has risen to her successful station in life. Dee’s desire to use the old quilts for decoration rather than for everyday use shows a major misunderstanding on her part. The historical and familial value of the quilts does not come from looking at them, but from continuing to use them and repair them. “Dee views her heritage as an artifact which she can possess and appreciate from a distance instead of as a process in which she is always intimately involved” (Piedmont-Marton, 45). Dee’s aloof attitude about her family history comes from her sense that she has succeeded in life and is now distinguished from her humble