I recall reading Alicia Walker’s “Everyday Use” in my Intro to American Fiction course sophomore year. The main point we had talked about in discussion was the irony of Dee’s character because while she wished to preserve her heritage, heritage is complicated by the modernization of her education. There’s an irony to how she wishes to preserve her heritage, but does not wish to preserve her direct family heritage, which is demonstrated by the scene in which she reveals her decision to change her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. This offends her mother―the first-person narrator―because Dee says she changed her name because Dee was a name given by oppressors, but that was a name given to her by her family, so this claim does not quite illustrate respect for her family. After taking this class, I can see how through the lens of culture, this is quite a complicated matter. We have discussed the importance of acknowledging the past, especially cultures that were affected by colonialism.
With African heritage in mind, particularly African American hardships, there’s a lot that Walker’s story presents in terms of erasure. The heritage that Dee (Wangero) is trying to uphold is before colonialism/imperialism, and embrace those roots; however, it’s difficult when put into practice because the setting―America in the 1960s (as presumed with the Johnny Carson reference)―indicates that in terms of time, there is development/ evolution of an African American culture being realized in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. By embracing an origin Dee has never known, she is rejecting her family. The character’s attitudes also are slightly disheartening when thinking about the performativity, which makes me wonder if this is a critique from Walker in the sense that it is important to understand heritage, but doing so shouldn’t be for a mere performance; it should be for genuinely wanting to learn. In Dee’s desire to embrace a pre-colonial African heritage, it causes an erasure of the trauma experienced in the African American upbringing that cannot be ignored.
In contrast to Dee’s attitude towards her family in “Everyday Use” Marge Piercy’s poem “To be of use” is about appreciating those who have worked tirelessly, but manage to embrace that work. Dee does not embrace what her family has done to help her get to where she can have nice clothes and live comfortably. Piercy’s descriptions are of traits that display confidence in individual work. For instance, Maggie in “Everyday Use’ is not as confident as her sister, especially because her face was partially marred in a fire that happened to their previous home. Maggie also doesn’t stand up for herself when it comes to the quilts, about to let Dee “use” them for hanging up on display (which does back to the evidence of performativity). Their mother takes the quilts out of Dee’s hands, confident that Maggie will actually make proper use of the quilts. This moment is fascinating to think about through the lens of “To be of use” because the mother shows an air of favoritism like the speaker in the poem. While Maggie is shy, she has a good nature about her and tries to be there for her mother, whereas Dee is not supportive of the family, thus, she’s not doing “work that is real” since her manner is like a performance.
Overall, as a creative writer, I enjoyed reading these pieces side-by-side and analyzing what the characterizations reveal, and tying that back to what we have discussed thus far, especially in terms of culture fluidity and erasure, mainly in part because of colonialism/imperialism.
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