Your task, then, is to write an essay of roughly two pages arguing the extent to which you share Walker’s view. Do you see Dee as hypocritical character whose interest in her heritage is solely selfish and superficial? Or might her new-found connection to her heritage be viewed in a more positive light? In other words, although Dee’s connection to her past takes on a different form than it does for Maggie and Mama, is it also valid?
To develop your argument, you should incorporate textual evidence in the form of direct quotation and paraphrase from “Everyday Use” as well as at least two of the following sources:
“Black Nationalism,” The University of Georgia (Available in the Formal Essay #2 Folder in Course Materials.)
“Stitches in Time: An Interview with Alice Walker” (Available in the Formal Essay #2 Folder in Course Materials.)
“Kinship and Quilting: an examination of an African-American Tradition,” Floris Barnett Cash (Available in the Formal Essay #2 Folder in Course Materials.)
“A Primer of the Black Arts Movement,” Kalamu Ya Salaam (Available in the Formal Essay #2 Folder in Course Materials.)