Everyday Use by Walker and Half and Half by Tan - Essay Example

Dee's connections to her family as well as her name, named after her grandma to Wangero, as she says, “I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker, 1994). Rose, the daughter in Half and Half faces the conflict in terms of faith and loss. Her mother lost faith in religion when her son Bing was drowned as she kept “Bible wound up wedged under a too-short table leg” (Tan, 2006) while Rose thinks of losing faith in love when she thinks of separation from Ted as she says, “I know it’s hopeless” (Tan, 2006).

Maggie’s mother resolves the conflict by giving the quilt to Maggie instead of Dee as a token of her love and as a thing of everyday use. She considers Maggie as the representative of her culture and “snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap” (Walker, 1994). Rose resolves the conflict by realizing her mistake and by realizing that she is at the same place which, her mother was when she lost Bing. Both of them, the mother and daughter, realize that loss is there and should be accepted.

Maggie’s mother snatches the quilt from Dee and hands it over to Dee as an indication of her ethnic background. To her, Maggie will use the quilt as a cover for which, it was created while Dee will only use it as a showpiece. She thinks that Maggie is more linked to her culture while Dee has tried to Americanize herself. Rose’s decision to have a separation is based on her consideration that there is no hope left. Her ethnic background played a crucial role in her decision-making as she is still connected to her culture and is unable to break away from it in spite of the fact that she says, “I am an American too” (Tan, 2006). Read More