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Everyday Use By Amy Tan Character Analysis

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“You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family.” Behind this phrase lies the truth of family. Which is that Families are not perfect. Unlike friends you can never leave them. You are bound to your mother since your first breath in this world. You owe her your life, and much of who you are is because of the influence of your family. However, we still find much to quarrel about within the household. Perspective is a source of much conflict within the Family. Whether it be someone's ignorance, pride, or simply their lack maturity, a person's understanding of a situation within the family can be skewered by their faulty point of view as shown in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
We all come from different backgrounds. …show more content…
For instance, the man from a poor small town who had to pull himself up from his bootstraps and struggle to succeed and make something of himself would have a different perspective and understanding of the world than another man who in essence and ability is no different, but has had a privileged life handed to him from birth. In Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” we see another prime example of this. The mother in the story came from nothing in China. After losing her children and everything she had, she came to America, otherwise known to her as “The Land of Opportunity” In order to seek a better life. America was the promised land to the mother. The mother “believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America… America was where all… hope lay.” (Tan, 308) Naturally, with this golden view of the country she thought that her daughter could easily be successful since she was BORN in this wonderful place and did not have to fight to get there. Now, that is a very important fact to keep in mind. Amy Tan's character was born in the country, a completely different background than what the mother had. America to her is her home. It is not the magical land of opportunity that her mother sees. It is the city streets, its school, homework, boys, the trivial small things all combined. That is …show more content…
It can be affected by your environment also. Your environment is the people you associate with. Your level of education, the media you consume, the slang you use. It is all bundled up to be how society influences you depending where you are. We see this a lot the differences between two generations. The great big conflict between the Millennials and the Baby Boomers, The liberals and conservatives. Each person is who they are because of what influences them. How deep they are into the society they are surrounded by. Typically, people attending university are more liberal than their older counterparts due to their high level of education and the people they associate with. We see this in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” in the conflict between Dee and her family. In the story, Dees sister Maggie is not educated. “ Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can’t see well. She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by.”(Walker 319) unlike her sister Dee who went to the city to go and get an education. Because of this Maggie lives the simple rural life, she has a different perspective than Dee. She enjoys the simple things in life and is fine with the way things are. She is not looking to change the world are be something big. She is happy with being happy. On the other hand, Dee is educated. Dee knows about the world and is not ignorant of the problems running

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