When reading “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, it is virtually impossible to miss the irony associated with Dee’s supposed assimilation with her heritage. Dee, rather than truly understand her heritage, tries to create an allusion by changing her appearance and by gathering priceless artifacts from her home.
Despite Dee’s efforts to embrace her heritage, it is truly only another phase in what her mother refers to as her “style” (12). At her arrival, Dee insists on being called Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo due to its more authentic appeal. Even though Dee believes her new name allows her to better embrace her roots, her real name, Dee was a name passed down in her family, from generation to generation, a name that truly depicts her heritage. Likewise, Dee tries to continue to create a façade with the outfit she arrives in. When first looked upon by her mother, the dress was “so loud it hurt” her mother’s eyes (20). Dee also demonstrates how she is simply embracing a new style when she decides she wants to take the old quilts that her Grandma had made by hand. Despite wanting the quilts now, Dee’s mother remarked that when she was first offered the quilts before she left for college, Dee pronounced that they were too “old-fashioned and out of style” (66) Irony also appears in the end of the story when Dee puts on her large sunglasses that “hide everything” on her face, indicating her obsession with fashion. Dee’s change of heart and attention with trends keep her from truly embracing her heritage.
Similarly Dee not only tries to recreate herself in order to embrace her heritage, but she also begins to seek materialistic possessions to act as relics of her newly formed self. At dinner, Dee decides to take her Grandma Dee’s butter dish and churn top in order to give the sense that she had had her connection with her ancestors. Yet in taking each object Dee remarks that its purpose will be as a showpiece in her home. Unlike her mother and sister, who actually use the churn top and butter dish, Dee simply sees each object as proof of her connection to her heritage. Likewise, when Dee first arrived, she took out a Polaroid to capture pictures of her mother, sister, a cow, and the house. To Dee, her family and previous lifestyle serve as nothing more than as examples of how their ancestors used to live. Dee also demonstrates irony when she insists that her sister “ought to try and make something of” herself instead of live in her old ways. Despite Dee’s so called embracement of her heritage, she insists on her sister forming a new life.
In spite of her so-called efforts to reconnect with her roots, Dee can never appreciate all that her heritage has to offer. “Everyday Use” depicts how mere materials do not define who one is and where they come from, and that one can only truly appreciate their heritage, like Dee’s mother and sister do, with everyday use. (508)
*Just as a reminder, I was late turning this blog in because I was on the JLP freshmen trip.
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Libero--Late blog is totally excused. You were serving your school well. (Remember to fill out a community service form also--I think you get 48 hours credit).
About your post--I like the way you collect the little hints that suggest that for Dee, "heritage" is all about being trendy and fashionable, a hip, urban, modern black woman of the 70's, whereas for the author, it's much more about "everyday use" and the significance of who you are and where you're from in your day-to-day life. Good point.
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