Merriam-Webster Dictionary denotes heritage as the tradition, achievements or beliefs that are part of the history of a group or nation (“Heritage”). Many would agree that America is the epitome of a hard working nation as everyone desires to obtain the American dream. The American dream is obtained by the fulfillment of one’s personal aspirations to become successful. Success can be measured by one’s desire to be emotionally, spiritually and financially satisfied. Whatever one’s mode is to obtain success, it can only be obtained by means of determination followed by hard work. The characters in Heaney’s “Digging” and Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun, are similar because their work ethics are influenced by their heritage, yet their approaches …show more content…
Mama (Lena) would like to save a share of this money for a house and her daughter Beneatha’s college education. Meanwhile Mama’s son Walter Lee would like to use the money to open up a liquor store. The house that Mama invested her money in is in a white neighborhood that is not genuinely welcoming to African American families. The community leader of the neighborhood insinuated that the family not move in and went as far as to buy the house back from Mama at a higher price. Following through with this deal would ultimately upset Mama because she does not want surrender as an inferior being due to her race. Mama wants to embrace her family’s strength and pride as she decides to decline on the offer and move into her family’s new home. Similarly, in 1966, Seamus Heaney crafted “Digging,” a poem that begins with the speaker seated at a desk poised to begin writing. As the speaker sits, he reminisces back to the intense laborious work his father did to provide for the young speaker and presumably his family. Eventually, as the speaker continues to reminisce, he begins to think of his grandfather who had also made a living as potato planter and how hard his grandfather worked doing this job. The speaker then ends the poem …show more content…
Many people embrace their parents’ ethics, so therefore they embrace the attitudes of those before them in regards to their working habits. For example in Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Ruth states, “Lena – I’ll work … I’ll work twenty hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago… I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to and scrub all the floors in America and wash all the sheets in America if I have to – but we got to MOVE! We got to get OUT OF HERE!!” (Hansberry, 987) While Ruth is not a biological member of the Younger family, she has adapted to the family’s heritage in that she understands that the family is in a dire financial state. With this knowledge of her family’s situation, Ruth can now understand why it is so critical for her to obtain vigorous work ethics. Ruth has obviously come to the realization that to achieve a large goal of owning a home, one must be a hard worker to compensate for the costs of having a home. Similarly, the speaker in “Digging” states, “By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man” (15-16). This quote illuminates what it means to be influenced by heritage to work hard. The speaker indicates that his father was influenced by his father to become a hard working potato picker in the way he handles his spade. The speaker’s use of the word like indicates that there is a similarity or perhaps an influence between two people in that he compares his
Heritage and tradition are often tied together inaccurately with assumptions that the two words are proportionate to each other, however, heritage of a family is what inspires and conceives traditions. In the story ‘Two Kinds’ by Amy Tan, she goes into depth about how strong family heritage lead her to be unique in a new world of exploration. In the story Jing-mei explains the stress of overcoming disliked aspects of heritage, “If felt like worms and toads and slimy things crawling out of my chest, but it also felt good” (Tan 231). A strong understanding of family values will allow alteration for the benefit of other family members and future generations. Expressing how simple things can infringe on a person's own characteristics in ‘By Any Other Name’ the narrator says, “If one’s name is changed, one develops a curious form of dual personality” (Rau 44).
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," is a story about a poor, African-American family and a conflict about the word "heritage." In this short story, the word "heritage" has two meanings. One meaning for the word "heritage" represents family items, thoughts, and traditions passed down through the years. The other meaning for the word "heritage" represents the African-American culture.
The play A Raisin in the Sun illustrates the social and economic pressure that is placed on the Younger family, especially Beneatha who aspires to become a doctor at the time where not many women could even imagine such aspirations. The Younger family's daughter Beneatha is an outspoken intelligent member who raises the argument for the other side of the spectrum at all times. Beneatha is aspiring to become a doctor and has some hope that some of the money from her father's social insurance cheque would help go to her medical school. The pressure of being lower middle class severely affects the relationships of the Younger family as Walter, Beneatha's older brother shows no regard for his sister as he sees her as the only one in the house not
The stereotypes of rural Black women are depicted in the seemingly dilapidated state of mama’s old homestead. This is a stereotype of the poor and humble lives of the black subsistence farmers residing in the old South. Although Dee and her friend look down upon their lives, the reality is different. Mama completely owns her own reality and she is proud
Heritage is defined as something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth. In “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker, the theme of the story can be considered as the meaning of heritage or even the power of education. Alice Walker uses many symbols and motifs such as the following: quilts, education, knowledge, Asalamalakim, and the renaming of Dee. In the story, African heritage and knowledge takes a major role.
A common theme for the two passages is obligations. There is obligations that everyone has to do. Just like how in the first passage the speaker had to shovel off his sidewalk for the children who walk to school on it. The second passage says that she loves people who jump right into their obligations, just like an ox pulling a cart. The second passage also says she wants to be like those people who submerge into their obligations. An important message that readers can learn is that you will be rewarded if you do your tasks you are supposed to do, and if you don't do your tasks then you might get
A raisin in the sun is a book by Lorraine Hansberry that tells the story of a lower-class black family's struggle to gain middle-class acceptance while facing internal family conflicts the book was written in 1959, so the movie is an interpretation of the book. Yet the movie made it seem as if Walter is a very selfish man. Reading the book brings a different visualization .The movie also was able to move to different locations, the book however, which was written originally to be acted out on stage. Yet besides all the differences, a common theme ran though in both the book and the movie
Heritage has an influential role in every individual’s life. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a short story that portrays two sisters’ from a poor African American home and their conflicting views on the value and meaning of heritage. Maggie, the younger sister, is uneducated but truly appreciates where she comes from. Dee, the oldest sister, is an educated college student but her she has a warped idea of heritage. Alice Walker uses the characters, point of view and symbolism to develop the main theme of heritage.
According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2015), heritage is defined as, “traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation” (“Heritage”). Heritage takes on mixed meanings for different people as a consequence of life experiences and belief systems. Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” utilizes characters with varying ideas of “heritage” to enlighten the world of the issues inside the African American community. The short story “Everyday Use” was written in 1973 at the end of the Civil Rights Era and beginning of the age of freedom; it embodies the struggle within a family to differentiate between authentic American traditions and new age notions of African history. Walker uses juxtaposing lead characters to symbolize the contrast between true, folk legacy and Dee’s romanticized idea of heritage. “Everyday Use” distinguishes the conflicting opinions of three African American women, and how they each express their own philosophies of family heritage.
Everyone inherits something during life, whether it be money from a recently deceased relative or physical features from parents. Throughout the poem “Heritage” by Linda Hogan, the narrator remembers all the traits and lessons that she has garnered from her kin. A superficial reader of the poem might assume that the narrator is simply reflecting on said traits and lessons, but in reality she is actually attempting to illuminate and reconcile the differences in her life.
Mama says this after Beneatha tells Mama that there is nothing left in her brother, Walter to love. Mama’s dream of a better quality of life is deferred because she has carry the responsibility of tending to a family with so much indifference and of holding together the few pieces of her family left together.
In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the message about the preservation of heritage, specifically African-American heritage, is very clear. It is obvious that Walker believes that a person's heritage should be a living, dynamic part of the culture from which it arose and not a frozen timepiece only to be observed from a distance. There are two main approaches to heritage preservation depicted by the characters in this story. The narrator, a middle-aged African-American woman, and her youngest daughter Maggie, are in agreement with Walker. To them, their family heritage is everything around them that is involved in their everyday lives and everything that was involved in the lives of their ancestors. To
In the playwright A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is about a poor African-American family named the Younger. This family live in a poor one bedroom apartment in the Southside of Chicago. In the play this family suffer and struggle a lot and they were always praying and wish to live in a very big house of their own. In the beginning of the play this family knows that they going to get Walter Lee Sr insurance worth 10,000 dollars that he left behind after his death for Lena ( mama). In the play this family was waiting on the check so that they share it to themselves. In the playwright Walter Lee wants to open his own type of business which is liquor store, in the other hand Lena ( mama) has always wanted to buy a big nice house with a backyard where her grandson Travis can been playing everyday. The three characters that are in the playwright are Walter Lee Younger Junior, Lena Younger (mama), and Ruth Younger this are three characters.
Family values are the context of Mama’s second nurturing lesson to Beneatha. After a conflictive encounter with her brother, Beneatha expresses a lack of respect and love for Walter. Lena Younger first quickly ensures that she correctly heard her daughter. Although Mama does not come across as gentle as she has in the past, her
An hour after the moving van parked in the driveway of 406 Clybourne street in Clybourne Park the younger family waved at the van when it slowly moved away and they went inside when the van was out of view. The family worked together to put away their belongings and they stood hand and hand and they took a breath of fresh air. Beneatha went first to her room to put away her stuff then Ruth and Walter went next and Travis left to go hunt for his new room. They all left until Mama was left there alone looking out the big window. Mama gingerly stepped to the window and put her plant down smiling in thought. When the door bell rung she jumped and went to the door. At the door was a white woman and when the door opened and saw mama she flinched and said “Hello, I’m your neighbor it’s nice to meet you.” She said “I’m Susan it’s nice to meet you.” She said this slowly, deliberately like she’s talking to a foreign person and Susan put out her hand and mama did not reach for it her face was just a blank stare. Then after a while mama stammered “h-hello I’m Lena Younger its very nice to meet you.” And she reached out and shook Susan’s hand and Susan quickly took it away. Then she said “Well I just came to say,” Susan took mama’s shirt and pulled her face so close to mama’s that their noses were touching. “stay out of our way, we will stay out of your way if you stay out of ours.” She shoved mama into their brand new house and slammed the door so hard that