Theme Analysis Assignment : Fiction Unit - Essay Example

Alice Walker’s “Everyday use” is an important example of African-American piece of writing. In this story, she has followed the conventional theme of identity crisis and the character of Dee has been presented as a specific individual who is facing this identity crisis and due to this identity crisis she is in clash with her family. Alice Walker has beautifully dealt with this specific convention and has given it a special colour through her specific style of description by using certain symbols and dialogues.

In the following lines we will find out how the writer has used this convention and what was her intention behind using this convention. Naming and Renaming The blacks are very sensitive about their identities and their African American living has further complicated the identity issue. The Black youth is in a crucial situation. He or she is very much conscious of his/her black origin and the impact of the racial history is always at the back of his/her mind. But they also find themselves in new surrounding where they have to live with white people.

Here they are faced conflict in their own selves. They ask themselves the question: which identity I should I adopt. Dee in “Everyday use” is one such character is facing this issue.. The writer has beautifully described the issue of identity through the act of naming and renaming. The following dialogue shows the reason of Dee’s decision for name changing. She thinks that her previous name attached her with her hateful oppressive past and now she has detached her with her past by changing her name.

When the mother addresses her with her old name ‘ Dee”, she corrects her mother. "No, Mama," she says. "Not 'Dee,' Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!" "What happened to 'Dee'?" I wanted to know. "She's dead," Wangero said. "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me"(Walker 178). Dee has not only changed her name but she has changed her lifestyle. Mother seems to be proud of her daughter’s achievements and her new style. She narrates,“Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she’d made from an old suit somebody gave me” (Walker 176).

Dee had this realization of being stylish even at the tender age of sixteen. Heritage and Identity The story also deals with the theme of heritage and here again it is related to the identity. The heritage belongs to those people who are its true inheritors. As Dee is detached herself from here tradition and heritage, she does not qualify for having any part of that heritage. That’s why Mother decides that the quilts should go to Maggie who is still attached to the old traditions and is not the product of mixed identity like Dee.

Only those persons deserve the heritage who identify themselves with it."The truth is," she said, "I promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she matties John Thomas" (Walker 181). Dee is shocked to know this and she expresses her anger over this."Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use" (182). But mother does agree to this opinion. The following lines show the reason behind her confidence in Maggie: I reckon she would," I said.

"God knows I been saving 'em for long enough with nobody using 'em. I hope she will!" I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she