Alice Walker

There is also a distinction to be made between two portrayals of what might be called African American authenticity. In "Everyday Use," Dee's adoption of a black Muslim racial identity, including her new name, Wangero, and a man whose own complicated name--a verbal play on the traditional Islamic greeting--is carried out with a solemnity that scarcely conceals the fact that Dee is trying to wheedle Mama and Maggie out of antiques and cultural artifacts of great monetary value. The implied critique in Alice Walker's text shows a capacity for self-scrutiny and the ability not to take oneself so culturally seriously on the part of the narrator that the character Dee does not share and that Mama vaguely intuits when forbidding Dee to abscond with the quilt and other household items. Good Times accumulated a history of controversy regarding the authenticity issue, notably because the highly popular character of

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It is as if Mama is valorizing an idealized white world that is every bit as stereotypical and phony as the happy-go-lucky ghetto experience dominating the action of Good Times when J.J. is on the screen. On the other hand, the evidence of Walker's text is that in an unanticipated epiphany Mama understands the craft of execution implied in the very existence of things for everyday use around the house belongs to a heritage and way of life that Mama and Maggie are completely familiar with and that Dee has made a project of abandoning. Above all, that heritage must not be commodified for the antiques/crafts marketplace (even one that touches on African American roots) to which Dee is so attuned. That is why Mama's refusal to let go of her everyday things is the moment of heroism closes the action. "Everyday use," in other words, means something different from putting a price tag on everything one sees. In the simple but honest value system of Mama and Maggie, everyday use is not backwardness but instead an image of their heritage that sustains their lives, and that is what is priceless. The values of Good Times must be analyzed through a prism of network-TV realities, which is to say marketplace realities. If it is true, as Bayles
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1396
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)