When Dee finds out that the quilts were already given to her sister, Dee gets furious and believes that she deserves the quilts more than Maggie and that Maggie would not take care of them as well as she would. Poor Maggie says to her mother "She can have them Mama...I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts". Maggie is used to never getting anything. Throughout the entire story, it says that Maggie gives up many things so Dee can have what she needs or wants. Dee is quite ungrateful.
Direct characterization is when the narrator, in this case ‘Mama’, tells the reader what the character’s traits are. For instance, when Dee wants the quilts Mama says “I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style” (114). Dee leads Mama to think that she [Dee] is self-centered and judgmental of their heritage, represented by the quilts. By rejecting the quilts the first time Dee rejected their culture.
Eddie felt humiliated about where she was raised, she didn't want to be associated with the "scandals" that belonged to the shacks north of the creek. She believed that, since she grew up in the shacks, she was worth less than the next person. Edith was embarrassed by her drunken father, even though none of his actions were ever her fault. Her mother, a "hallelujah-shouting fool" who preached, but never actually went to church, was also a huge contributor to the way Eddie felt. With people tormenting her about her cousins who were teen moms, or her father who made a fool of his drunken self in public, the poor girl felt like nothing more than dirt, and she wanted to be thought of as flawless and beautiful.
And as the story is set in the start 70’s where the Afro-Americans is fighting for their rights and identity, Mama is a kind of afraid of “letting Dee go”. She thinks that Dee may forget her actual values, by living with white people and their values. The reason why she changed her name was to be like hundred percent independent, with a totally new her, and a new life. Dee has broken the family circle by
Brainwashed by society’s standards and demeaned by the white race, the black population struggles to fit the stereotypical image of perfection. Pauline Breedlove, Pecola’s mother, gets caught up in leading her fantasy life. She envisions her ideal universe filled with “beauty, order, cleanliness, and praise” (127). Mrs. Breedlove uses her job as a housemaid to surround herself in the accepted world of whites. After being suffocated by the images of this absolute world, Mrs. Breedlove strives to acquire the white’s life style.
Rochelle continuously denies her heritage and desires to be the ideal “American Bride.” Throughout the story Lily tries to get Rochelle to acknowledge her Hispanic heritage but Rochelle doesn’t accept it. “You’re carrying your gringa kick too far.” This shows how Lily feels towards her sister’s attitude. In the end Rochelle’s denial of reality reaches it’s peak when she’s finds herself pregnant, married, and in high school. “He was beautiful too- the Mexican version of the blond grooms.” Rochelle finally realized what her sister was trying to tell her all her life; you can’t escape your
From the beginning when we were first introduced to Dee, we find that she has changed her name to Wangero saying that Dee is “dead” because she didn’t think her name, Dicie, had any cultural significance and so she choice a name she felt suited her more. She says she couldn’t bear being named after people who oppress her. She has no connection or respect with her family. This is sad because she doesn’t like who she once was. Although she has learned a lot from her schooling and has a better knowledge than her mom & sister, I feel she possesses this know-it-all attitude about what heritage really is.
English 1102 April 17, 2007 “The American Melting Pot: Devourer of Cultures” Both Dee in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Shyamoli in Chitra Divakaruni’s “Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter” purposely reject their family heritage in the hope of reshaping their own cultural identities to “fit in” with those who live in modern day America. Mama portrays Dee as the most intelligent daughter in the family, but also as the most superficial and naïve because of her tendency to prioritize fashion and trends instead of family and traditions. Dee’s aspirations to own the family heirlooms for decorative purposes, such as the quilt, only furthers her disconnection from her family’s ancestral culture and strengthens her false assimilation into the superficial teenage American culture which continues to pressure her to conform to society and deny her true cultural identity. Shyamoli, like Dee, is also pressured into the idea that she is obligated to be a part of the modern day American culture, which is the community she lives in.
“A Broken Tradition” The short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is about contrasting ideals as the title suggests. A mother and daughter, Jing-mei, disagree consistently as they are divided by old traditions and new age cultures. Jing-mei’s mother has an ideal goal set for her daughter and what her daughter should achieve. Jing-mei resents her mother’s ideals about old traditions and new opportunities. This causes Jing-mei to do less than her best throughout her life as she grows into a Chinese woman of America.
In “Little Women: Alcott’s Civil War” (1979), Judith Fetterly argues that the four sisters of Alcott’s Little Women (1868) are denied their dreams because “Little women marry, however, not only because they lack economic options, but because they lack emotional options as well. Old maidhood obliterates little womanhood and the fear of being an old maid is a motivating force in becoming a little woman” (377). I conclude that these strong women chose their life outcomes due to their own maturation. Maturation is realizing things we wanted before aren’t always what we will want in the end, a trait Meg exhibits when she comes to realization about loving Mr. Brooke. Meg’s dream was to be rich so that she would not have to work, with “a lovely house, full of all sorts of luxurious things; nice food, pretty clothes, handsome furniture, pleasant people, and heaps on money”(140).