Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Superior Essays
People go about their day conforming to whatever it is they encounter, not even regarding their morals or cultural heritage. The question I ask myself is, “Why would someone stand by and not express who they really are when their culture is being ridiculed?” People with different cultures should share their culture with others so that other people may learn about different things and to accept different types of people. It is the other peoples job to listen and accept differences in heritage with open arms and realize that were all stuck on this earth together and we have to find a way to make it work and to make the best of our situation. Being different is something that not all people embrace or even acknowledge in their everyday lives. …show more content…
You can either look at this story for what it is or you can see the deeper meaning. For example, the quilt gave insight into ones culture. Alice Walker’s story, “Everyday Use”, shows how one can either run from their heritage or learn from it. One of the main characters name is Maggie. She has lived with her mom her whole life ever since she had an accident, which I inferred was that their house has caught on fire and Maggie didn’t get out in time. Maggie had physical and emotional scars from what she had experienced and seen. Her sister, Dee, on the other hand is the polar opposite of Maggie. Dee had lived with her mom her whole life. But once Dee grew up, she completely left her principles behind. When Dee had come back to visit Maggie and Ma, she had changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo and also her style of dressing. That is a perfect example of how to run or learn from your background. Also, Dee or Wangero just had to have the blankets that Maggie and their grandmother had made because, “Maggie won’t appreciate them as much as I would.” That is a problem for the Ma but not for Maggie, Ma finds that quite disrespectful because Dee didn’t work for them, while Maggie realizes why Dee wants to obtain the blankets because Dee never had that close of relationship with their grandma. Maggie ends up entrusting the blankets to Dee, which I believe shows how mature Maggie is. Also how even though Dee …show more content…
They didn’t show anything bad about each other, but they didn’t quite agree with each other either. For example, Mira chose to live in her Indian culture while moving into the United States, while Bharti chose to convert to the US culture. Those two didn’t argue or fight about the cultures they chose. They even had regular conversations with each other that were normal and not related to the cultures. This later on lead to them understanding each other when the US started taking their rights away. The author, Bharti, shows how culture is meant to be expressed, in my

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