In the short story Everyday Use, Dee or as she preferred to be called, Wangero, went from hating where she came from to a facade of appreciation of her heritage. If she really appreciated her background she wouldn’t have changed her name. She was attempting to show gratitude and acknowledgement of her heritage because that was the current ‘style’. She wanted to hang up the quilt rather than allow it to be used for what it was made for. The heritage behind the quilt is what it took to make it. Maggie got first hand heritage and memories from her grandmother, whereas Wangero is simply trying to use the quilt as her memory. Dee accuses her mother and sister of not appreciating their heritage, when her own appreciation was far from genuine. I come from a small town that most people would be eager to get away from and forget. I may not want to move back there after college, but I am proud of where I came from and believe it had a huge part in forming the person that I am today. You can never forget where you came from. This is one of the problems I see with a lot of celebrities, they forget their upbringing and what it took for them to get to the top, and thats when they lose a lot of fans and respect.
From monday: In our group, we discussed Roth’s technique of using history combined with personal anecdotes. We all believe that this method is successful in drawing the attention of the readers because it makes history seem more personal.
