"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker is a short story based on the importance of ones heritage.

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Ryans

Lindsay Ryans

Dr. Babiiha

English 1023-05

5 October 2004

Heritage

        “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a short story based on the importance of ones heritage.  Dee, the eldest daughter, always wanted to be different.  She was ashamed of her past and the heritage that was passed along to her.  Dee disregards the significance of her family heritage in her desire for change.  She is ignorant to her own culture and claims a false sense of tradition.  Dee looks at her heritage as something she can put on display; as long as it is fashionable and fits in with her taste.  She has no real connection to anything and has become detached from the culture that she is trying to claim.

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Dee’s name offers a good example of her ignorance towards her heritage.  When her mother attempts to call her, she is immediately informed that her name is not Dee, but Wangero Leewamika Kemanjo.  She has chosen this new name to express her solidarity with her African ancestors and to reject the oppression caused by the name given to her.  She feels that her new name is more appropriate in representing herself.  Dee fails to understand that her given name goes back several generations and is therefore more a part of her heritage than her newly adopted African name.  Her new ...

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