Topic > "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker: Exploring Social Conflict

Everyday Use is a masterpiece novel written by African-American writer Alice Walker, published in 1973. The highlighted perspective of social conflicts in marginalized members of society, such as women and people of color, has earned the novel great popularity among both readers and critics. Due to its value in sociology, various scholars have carried out related academic research on the novel. Say No to Plagiarism should violent video games not be banned"? Get an original essay The story centers on an African-American mother and her two children, Dee and Maggie, who possess starkly contrasting traits and personalities. Dee, who later changed her name to Wangero ( due to her refusal to be named after the people who oppressed her people), she is an elegant girl who received a college education. Maggie is a shy girl with little education and self-esteem and does not seem to understand the way she behaves Dee, just like her mother. Dee's Name: His Quest for Civil Rights and His Cultural Legacy The African American civil rights movement began as a series of protests against legally enforced segregation based on the ideology of white supremacy and black inferiority, starting in 1900. The black community has then been on a journey seeking equality in the United States for nearly 90 years. In the novel, one of Dee's most notable acts is changing her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, which she believes is an African name. which reflects its cultural heritage. Names exist as a crucial part of a civil rights campaign, as the imposition and acceptance of a name can reflect an individual's cultural identity, depending on whether an individual accepts himself or herself as a "Negro slave," a "black person" or an African. America. The name Dee was given to her ancestors by the white American slave masters who shipped and enslaved Wangero's ancestors, so she no longer accepted being called Dee after learning the history, perhaps through her college education. A conflict in this case would be the pragmatism and ease of addressing Wangero by his simple European-origin name Dee and the idealism of cultural preservation using the long African-origin name Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, just like any other conflict between pragmatism and idealism in the essay. However, despite the mother's initial discomfort with the name change, she ultimately decided to respect her son's wishes and therefore attempted to address her son and his partners by their names of African origin. An irony of the name change act is that Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo is not a typical African name itself. The name's closest connection to Africa is that it may be a name of East African origin, which may not be the precise origin of Dee. Therefore, it is assumed that Dee has only a superficial knowledge of African culture, despite his vain attempt to recover his cultural heritage. A blunt criticism of her actions is that Wangero, as an individual raised as an American, has taken a series of actions to “become” African, which can achieve no success other than making her a “fake.” This shows partial agreement with such criticism: one can respect the fact that Wangero has enough cultural awareness, which pushes her to engage in cultural conservation. However, her superficial knowledge of her cultural roots may not make her a competent person in cultural preservation. Therefore, he may need to experience African culture by actually living in Africa for a period of time. This way, he can have the”.