Culture has different features such as language, marriage, religion, thought, clothing, and food. These features, in a geographic and historical context, form the identity and culture of a particular group that make them different from others. Therefore, depending on how these elements are taught to the individual, it forms a person’s culture. The best example to confirm this is the next generations of immigrant people. Sometimes, they do not have a connection with their heritage; inversely they are closer to the host country’s culture and language. The two short stories “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “How to Be Chinese” by Celeste Ng introduce reader two different families in two different cultures. By analyzing these two stories, this insight suggests that culture can be learned by education and personal interest as Mackenzie’s situation or some parts may not be accepted just as Dee’s situation.

            Despite her interest in her heritage, In “Everyday Use”, Dee does not accept all aspect of her family’s culture and has called for cultural change in her life. “Everyday Use” expresses images of hereditary culture in an African-American family. Dee is the eldest daughter, more beautiful, confident, and educated than her youngest sister Maggie. She wants to be different from her family class and is searching for new worlds and cultures. “She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, … burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know” (Walker, p 150). Because in her thirst to study, she has been sent “to Augusta to school” (Walker, p 150). When she is back she has a different name that implies she could not accept her name. “’No, Mama,” she says. “Not ‘Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”’ (Walker 152). She has a good reason to change her name, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker, p 152). It refers to the era of slavery. She even prefers her mother to be different from what she is. Mama, the narrator of the story, stresses it, “I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. My hair glistens in the hot bright lights” (Walker, p 149). There is a cultural gap between her and her family. Exactly for this incomprehensible cultural difference, Mama does not like to give her the quilts. “I promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries…” (Walker, p 154). Mama thinks when Dee changed her name to an African name; she does not value the family’s own heritage. Wnagero/ Dee has a different world. For example, in dispute with Mama, her emphasis on the inherited quilts from grandma is its aesthetic value as an art work and not for everyday use. In response to her Mama’s negative answer, ‘“Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” she said. “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use”’ (Walker, p 154). Her reason and way to connect to her ancestors is to cherish their heritage, that is why when Mama asks her’ “What would you do with them”, she answers, “Hang them”’ (Walker, p 154).

            In the same story and in contrast Wangero/ Dee, there is another character, Maggie who has accepted her heritage by her will. She is the youngest sister who has limited education, with parts her body burned, and without self-confidence. She does not move away from her mother, does not change her name, and most importantly, she knows how to make a quilt which Wangero/ Dee does not know how. Maggie and Mama differ from Wnagero/ Dee in their attitude towards culture. They believe that one should know the background of his/her heritage and live with that. Mama reminds Wangero/ Dee her difference with Maggie, “She can always make some more…Maggie knows how to quilt” (Walker, p 154). Maggie is the symbol of an individual who has learned her family culture from childhood and has accepted that. Maggie and Dee are two sisters that have grown up in a family and have same heritage, but one accepts it and the other one does not. Both sisters have respect to their heritage, but it does not mean that both have a similar connection. Maggie knows the history of quilts, as a symbol of heritage, and has an emotional connection, but Dee wants just to display it.

            The other short story, “How to Be Chinese” by Celeste Ng confirms the theory that culture can be learned. Mackenzie is a Chinese baby girl whom her single “mother adopted her from China” (Ng. p 911). Therefore, she cannot “speak the language” (Ng, p 931). Instead, she has learned American culture from childhood. In other words, she is culturally white, but biologically Chinese. “At eighteen” (Ng, p 931), she “Announce[s] to your mother that you want to get in touch with your heritage: make it a going-to-college resolution” (Ng, p 931). As soon as she informs her mother of her decision, the mother says “… oh Kenz, I’m so proud” (Ng, p 932). At eighteen, the age when an individual has shaped in terms of language and culture, she just started to go to college and learn Chinese. Thus, she cannot be considered a Chinese person because she cannot read and write in Chinese not even a single word. “’… Jaw, deem, naugahyde. “What does that mean?” you ask”’ (Ng, p 933). In addition, culture is not just learning a language, but a deep understanding of the society’s behavior. Learning a new culture takes time, that is why each day is passing, Mackenzie feels a kind of disappointment ranging from type of food to their behavior. “The food when it comes, isn’t bad, but it’s strange. Its textures unnerve you…” (Ng, p 933). “The waiter at Happy Buddha, …, his tone is almost an accusation, … Try not to be disappointed when he doesn’t smile back” (Ng, p 933). Her mother encourages Mackenzie to go back to her roots, learn her Chinese culture, and when she hears her daughter’s decision, she becomes happy, “She wanted this since you were an infant, …” (Ng, p 932). The narrator of the story, Mackenzie because of the lack of knowledge of the new language she chooses a second person point of view to narrate her story. This style creates more sympathy between reader and narrator than the other point of views. It is a smart choice in service to the story.        

            In conclusion, both short stories “Everyday Use” and “How to Be Chinese” state on subject of culture. “Everyday Use” expresses that how culture can be inherited or some parts of it cannot be accepted. “How to Be Chinese” emphasizes that how it may be learned. To understand a culture is not just going to college and learn its language, it definitely takes time. An individual’s culture depends on the environment in which she/he has grown up, so culture is acquired as it is hereditary. Although culture transfers generation to generation sometimes not all parts of a culture is accepted. The culture that an individual has grown up with is different from a culture that you believe in.

Works Cited

McMahan, Elizabeth, et al. Literature and the Writing Process. Pearson, 2018.