Alienation and Displacement of Everyday Use by Alice Walker
Alice Walker is a renowned American author and activist. She has been able to publish a number of books which mainly talk about the society challenges and a clear formulation of how some of them can be solved. Her writing is varied as she writes on women oppression’s and racism. She is best known for her novel The Color Purple which led to her recognition and the prestigious award of the Pulitzer Prize. In 1973 she wrote a collection book of ‘In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women’ which was a huge success making the book to be anthologized from then on. It was in this collection that her story ‘Everyday Use’ made an appearance (Walker, 20)
A number of issues touching on the livelihoods of the black people in the society come up in the story Everyday Use. Alienation and displacements have been depicted as some of the major concerns of the writer in several modes. The story being based on an American African tells of a woman who lives with one of her daughters in the Deep South. This story tries to identify some of the differences which exist between Mrs. Johnson and with her daughter whom she is staying with called Maggie. The contrast is made with her other daughter who by now is well educated and quite successful as a modern day career woman. The differences presented in this context have been made in a humorous way (Hoel, 35)
Displacement and alienation have been seen as the basis in which the black population underwent in the earlier times. For instance in this case, Dee who is Mrs. Johnson’s daughter is unappreciative of the quilts. Their views of heritage are different and diverse in relation to her mother’s. In this case, Dee states that heritage is nothing more than a curiosity in which people can look at. In order to prove her point, she decorates the house using the churn top (Walker, 20)
Again she views her family members as curiosity especially in the part where she cannot take a photo without including the house. Unfortunately, Dee fails to understand that heritage comes from the way people live and their ‘everyday use’. This can be well understood in terms of how people live with others in the society (Maszewska, 240)
In trying to fit into her new culture, Dee is angered by the fact that she believes her family was oppressed historically. This then makes her reject her real culture altogether and thus has very little understanding of the African culture. this conflict of her supposed culture and her real culture makes Dee’s life and heritage meaningless (Walker,2)This is because she believes that the African culture is as good as dead and that it has now been replaced by new and modern day culture. Throughout the text, we can be able to see the different meanings that Dee and Mrs. Johnson have regarding culture (Cowart, 22)
Education is another important factor when it comes to alienation and displacement of a group of people. As seen in the text, Mama struggles and ensures that her daughter gets quality education in school. Her wishes were to uplift and strengthen the family in beneficial ways. This however does not go as expected as education makes the family even more apart in terms of values and views on cultural heritage (Baker Jr, 707) .Mama had not been able to attend school during her times because of factors like racism an issues that was beyond her control at that time. Though Dee becomes the favored one in the family to have education, she turns against them and lacks appreciation and respect towards them (Naives, 1)
Issues of naming and renaming have been seen in the texts in people’s conflict towards their own culture and the new one presented to them. For instance, Wangero changes to Dee a factor that can be said to show her confusion on heritage and culture aspects. The same case applies to her boyfriend Hakim-a-barber who also takes on a new identity (Sadoff, 18)
Dee has been able to depict a different personality in terms of she views life and the surrounding people. This makes her arrogant and cold towards her family. It may seem as if she is trying to embrace the African culture but this is just a cover up of her bitter feelings towards her family members (Walker, 20) In refuting to be called by her name Wangero, Dee shows a sign of rebellion. She goes further and refuses her mother’s acceptance and appreciation of her cultural traditions (Eddy, 2)
The effects of displacement and alienation often lead to confusion in terms of culture. In this case, Dee has found a new culture which she believes is not only the best but also superior to her mother’s and sister’s. The resultant of this is lack of respect for her family members which makes her isolated in her own world. Further to that, it becomes ironical when Dee is held up in illusions of her abstract culture which barely exists, her mother and sister become even closer as they appreciate whatever they have and are happy with the rest of the society.
Works cited
Baker Jr, Houston A. “Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker’s Everyday Use.” The Southern Review 21.3 (1985): 706-720.
Cowart, David. “Heritage and Deracination in Walker’s” Everyday Use”.” CONTRIBUTIONS IN AFROAMERICAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES 189 (1999): 21-32.
Eddy, Charmaine. “Marking the Body: The Material Dislocation of Gender in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.” ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 34.2-3 (2003).
Hoel, Helga. “Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker’s” Everyday Use”.” American Studies in Scandinavia 31.1 (1999): 34-42.
Maszewska, Jadwiga. “Travel and “Homing In” in Contemporary Ethnic American Short Stories.” Text Matters-A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture 2.2 (2012): 239-249.
Naives Kelly. Alice Walker: Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Social Activist, Visionary. Online < http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/Mar97/walker.html>
Sadoff, Dianne F. “Black Matrilineage: The Case of Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston.” Signs (1985): 4-26.
Walker, Alice. 1983. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. New
Walker, Alice. Everyday use. Rutgers University Press, 1994.
York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.