Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

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Everyone has their own way of viewing culture, they are also affected differently by their culture. It all really depends on what culture means to an individual. Growing up with multiple different cultures, people tend to have different views on everyone and everything. Culture can greatly influence one's outlook on the world and the people in it. People may be influenced by the different foods around the country compared to what they normally eat. They can also be influenced by the music they hear every day compared to what other people listen to. Culture has a big impact on an individual's lifestyle.
For example,in the short narrative Everyday use by Alice Walker, the character Maggie is an example of this claim.Maggie is nervous and maladjusted with a homebound isolation quite apparent in the story. Her “culture”is extended between her mother and herself, the views and beliefs being similar. For this reason she views her sister Dee as an outsider and her views and beliefs foreign. In the text it states,” I hear Maggie suck in her breath.Uhnnnh is what it sounds like.”(Walker) This expresses her astonishment at seeing something she wasn’t used to Maggie’s views are so …show more content…
The teacher never had encountered a student like Wind-Wolf and instead of he/she embracing him the teacher intentionally made him feel not comfortable in the classroom. In the passage the text states,”On the first day of school you had difficulty with his name…… the student laughed at him,causing further embarrassment”(Lake).This pre-judgement stems from her finite culture and that is the reason she views Wind-Wolf as such.Her culture probably was comprised of people with the same ethnic components,life and views.Culture can be so influential it stigmatizes a person without open
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