Alice Walker Heritage

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Essay: Alice Walker phenomenal Short Story: Reflection heritage For centuries African Americans have been fighting for equality, since 1562 when the first slave ship arrived in North American African Americans have been beating, persecuted, and enslaved. Today much has changed but I ask have we lost site of our heritage? In Alice Walkers “Everyday Use” you take a look into the conflict between keeping to your African roots of going with the modern day/ white man flow. What is the importance of the title “Everyday Use? Everyday Use is a reference to the quilt that the family was arguing over. Mrs. Johnson who did not treasure the quilt as a piece of history but of something for everyday use opposing that ideal Dee tries to enforce her beliefs…show more content…
Some individuals even say that Africa was the first continent in the world to be colonized by humans. So would it be OK to forget that and just leave that all behind? According to Mrs. Johnson it is OK to leave all that behind, even though she didn’t directly state that its book she implied it by showing how unknowledgeable, how knows little about her heritage. As Mrs. Johnson states in Alice Walkers “Everyday Use” page 5 "What happened to 'Dee'?" -"You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie," I said. Dicie is my sister. She named Dee. We called her "Big Dee" after Dee was born. "But who was she named after?" asked Wangero. "I guess after Grandma Dee," I said. "And who was she named after?" asked Wangero. "Her mother," I said, and saw Wangero was getting tired. "That's about as far back as I can trace it," I said. Though, in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches. "Well," said Asalamalakim, "there you are." This is an example of how ignorant Mrs. Johnson was about her…show more content…
Just as did Dee Malcolm X went out to collage during the beginning of the civil rights movement. Malcolm X who was born Malcolm little later in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower with the new surname "X" (He considered "Little" a slave name and chose the "X" to signify his lost tribal name.) according to http://www.malcolmx.com/about/bio.html. Just as Malcolm did, in Alice Walker “Everyday Use” Dee changed her original name to Wangero which signifies that she did not accept her “slave name”. Dee shows her disgust for her original name show on page 5 as she states "She's dead," Wangero said. Referring to her original name "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me." Malcolm like Dee also came back to teach and spread his ideals. Alice Walker’s Everyday use teaches use about strengthen, in order to appease the world we go along with what were told and don’t look back far enough to find the truth. In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass

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