An_Analysis_of_“Everyday_Use”_by_Alice_Walker_and_“Dead_Men's_Path”_by_Chinua_Achebe

Chinua Achebe and Alice Walker: Quiescent heroes of Black Literature An analysis of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “Dead Men’s Path” by Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian writer whose role as a socially committed storyteller is drawn from his ethnic Igbo traditions. As a central focus for most of his novels, short stories and poems, Achebe draws on the cultural traditions with which he was raised to highlight the importance of African, and in particular, Nigerian culture. The difficulties faced by Nigerian ethnic groups, pertaining to post-colonial reconstruction of Nigerian communities, are often the foundational underlying theme upon which Achebe bases most of his work. “Dead Men’s Path”, a short story, highlights the conflicts between traditional Nigerian culture and beliefs and the modern, westernised ideology, wrought by European colonialism. In an autobiographical comment published in Contemporary Novelists in 1989, Achebe referred to his works as being a response to the particular demands of three major periods in recent African history: the colonial years, into which Achebe was born; the years of nationalist protest, when Achebe grew up; and the succeeding years of resumed independence as modern Africa. Achebe presents the attitudes and challenges faced within all three of these epochs in “Dead Men’s Path”, primarily through the characters of Michael Obi and a village priest. Alice Walker’s background, however, is far more complicated; this is evident in her work as many of the themes and messages that she seeks to explore and convey are complex and varied. Notwithstanding this, “Everyday use” has very clear and defined themes, which have palpable connotations that derive from Walker’s own life experiences. Walker grew up in Georgia in the United States; as such her works focus upon and are influenced by African-American people and in particular African-American women. Born in 1944, Walker grew up in the midst of violent racism and poverty; it can be said that from here, Walker developed her ideas and attitudes about African-American oppression and culture. These are conveyed strongly and with conviction in her writings, noticeably so in “Everyday Use”. While studying at Spelman College in Atlanta, Walker participated in civil rights demonstrations, delving further into the ideas of the pan-Africanist or (commonly named) “Black Power” movement. Following this Walker won a scholarship as an exchange student to Uganda, and she also went to Kenya, spending two and a half years in Africa. This is where Walker began to experience and embrace authentic African culture. It is, consequentially, the confliction between the civil rights borne pan-Africanist movement and an understanding of authentic African and American heritage and culture which serve as an underlying theme within “Everyday Use”. Walker purports that an African-American is both African and American; as a result her works seek to highlight American heritage as well as African heritage. In this way the themes embedded in “Everyday Use” come from different perspectives of African culture than those within “Dead Men’s Path”. Writing in 1953, Achebe seeks to highlight the importance of an amalgamation of both traditional and modern Nigerian and (more broadly), African culture, utilising this as a central theme of “Dead Men’s Path”. The time at which the short story was written is reflected in the text in content; at this time Nigeria was beginning to make progress in its plight for independence and new attitudes were beginning to emerge as a result of European colonial presence. The significance and differentiation of post-colonial attitudes is conveyed in the text through the characters, who are presented as the creative guides through which Achebe attempts to engage the reader with his message. Michael Obi is the central character in the short story and can be perceived to represent the new, westernised generation of Africans who seemingly take on European ideologies and disregard traditional African values. The priest therefore, represents the traditional values of Nigerian culture, revealed to the reader through a spiritual guide. Parallel to this, Walker uses three main characters: Dee, Maggie and ‘Mama’ to convey theme in “Everyday Use”. The characters in this text present the conflict between traditional black American heritage and the more modern attitude amongst African-American youth, which was supportive of African heritage. Set in 1970s Southern America, “Everyday use” illustrates the struggle of black Americans to find an identity and in the same instance disregarding traditional black American culture. Walker also uses the characters in the story as a creative guide to understanding the identity struggles that African-Americans faced during that time period. The oldest daughter Dee is the “embodiment of the struggle for a unifying identity” (Sexton 2007), Maggie (the youngest daughter) represents those among the African-American community who seek to pass on their heritage without diminution between generations; and ‘Mama’ represents Walker’s voice, resonant of an inherent understanding of heritage, accentuating the importance of preserving American culture. However, although both Achebe and Walker pursue the theme of respecting and preserving traditional culture and heritage, they have differing opinions on which aspects of black culture should be preserved. This is due to their differing cultural and social backgrounds. Achebe was born and raised in Africa, and therefore perceives African culture to be the foremost heritage from which black people should derive and reconcile their modern beliefs; conversely Walker, having been raised in America in a traditional share-cropping African-American family is very connected to her American heritage. Walker believes that as an American, “to deny the American side of one’s heritage is disrespectful of one’s ancestors and, consequently, harmful to one’s self” (White 2001). Walker does not endeavour to disregard African heritage, but instead to find an intersection between African and American tradition as embodied by the characters of Dee, and Maggie. Walker, in “Everyday Use” uses ‘Mama’ as a narrator as well as, as a key character in the text. In this way ‘Mama’ is an unreliable narrator; Dee and Maggie are portrayed from the outside and the only insight the reader is given into these characters is through ‘Mama’. Walker uses this character to convey her own personal attitudes towards the themes of the text and neglects to openly communicate opposing attitudes and consequentially, the thoughts and emotions of Dee and Maggie; effectively imposing her ideas and opinions on the reader. This can be seen throughout the text, particularly at the beginning where ‘Mama’ makes assumptions about how Dee thinks of her and Maggie: “…used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice…” Walker is seemingly attempting to encompass the attitude of the new generation (of which she herself was a member), and presenting it as both ignorant and condescending towards older and more traditional generations of African-Americans. This also introduces the possibility that Walker may have viewed the younger, more liberated generation of African-Americans as using westernised education as a tool against older, less educated generations. Using an unreliable narrator the character of ‘Mama’ philosophically mirrors Walker’s intentions. Achebe, in contrast, uses an omniscient narrator to tell his story, giving a panoramic view of all characters’ thoughts and feelings. Using the third person omniscient narrator, Achebe is able to present meaningful characters that all represent a separate attitude or idea pertaining to the main themes within the story. This is evident in the text through Achebe providing the central character Michael Obi’s wife, Nancy with a voice. Through showing Nancy’s inner thoughts and desires Achebe presents the role of women in Igbo culture and society: “In their two years of married life she had become completely infected by his passion for "modern methods" and his denigration of "these old and superannuated people in the teaching field who would be better employed as traders in the Onitsha market”…” This highlights the way in which Igbo women are viewed culturally; they are subject to their husbands’ ideologies and internalise the way of life that is imposed upon them by the men in their lives. This is a subtle reference to a particular aspect of Igbo culture; however it gives an understanding of context to the reader by briefly communicating the relationship between men and women within traditional Nigerian culture. This also juxtaposes Obi’s modern, westernised ideas within his profession, with the traditional structure of his marital relationship; in this way Achebe is seen to reinforce the conflicts present within “Dead Men’s Path” between old and new values. Therefore, Achebe’s use of an omniscient narrator is also seen to be used as a way of conveying meaning through character as well as accentuating central themes within the story in an inclusive manner. The two texts differ vastly in so far as the use of narrative voice. Walker uses an unreliable narrator in a way that is personal to her own attitudes and feelings. ‘Mama’s description and opinion of other characters is emotive and personal to the character. Whereas, Achebe uses an omniscient narrator to highlight characters’ purposes and to convey meaning in an uncomplicated, logical way. This differentiation in style is perhaps indicative of the opposite genders of the authors. Achebe writes in a masculine way, logical and structured; whereas Walker uses a lot of description and interweaves the narrator’s emotions and feelings with description of characters. These two different styles give the texts different tones; by using an unreliable narrator, Walker assimilates the tone to the gender of her characters. It is palpable that the text was written initially for a female audience as the style of narration and the tone of the story appeal to the reader on an emotional level. In contrast, Achebe writes with the intention of conveying a message and does so with as little literary flamboyancy as possible. This tends to be representative of male authors and as such uses a narrator that tells the story in a somewhat emotionally detached way. This difference in style can also be detected in the structure of the two texts. Walker uses different tenses to give information to the reader about ‘Mama’ and her relationship with her two daughters. “Everyday Use” weaves in and out of time; starting in the present, reminiscing about the past, introducing Dee and Maggie in perspective, racing into the future and then returning inevitably to the present. ‘Mama’ as a narrator, does this many times throughout the story; this commitment to the present and to the memories of the past and hope for the future can be seen to be a parallel of the practise of quilting and its portrayal of history, heritage and the fluidity of life. The weaving in and out of different time fames therefore symbolises the purpose and significance of quilts; that is, the idea that quilts represent the evolution from generation to generation, thus acting as a preservation of family heritage and culture. Achebe also uses different tenses in structuring the text, however for different reasons and to differing effect. Achebe’s belief and knowledge of the spiritual aspects of Igbo culture are reflected in the character of the village priest. Achebe uses a Nigerian proverb within the story; it is in this way that the story is told. The omniscient narrator acts as the village priest does. Nigerian culture often utilises proverbs and sayings to teach philosophical lessons, usually to children; these proverbs involve telling a story with a protagonist, a challenge with which they are faced and a consequence for their selfish or mal minded actions. Achebe follows this structure in “Dead Men’s Path”: introducing Michael Obi as the protagonist in the very first sentence, showing the conflict between him and the villagers resulting in him acting negatively towards them and ending in Obi getting his comeuppance. In this way Achebe can relay the plight of the central characters in a way familiar to African readers, however this still relates to an international readership as a common way of storytelling. This also allows Achebe to relay the importance of upholding traditional African values in a subtle way, resulting in the themes of the story being received by the reader more readily. In this way Achebe uses the priest teaching Michael a spiritual lesson: “…let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch…” to impose a cultural lesson upon the reader about respecting African heritage and tradition. Where Walker uses the structure of the story to evoke emotional responses within readers to receive the themes and messages laid out in “Everyday Use”, Achebe uses the structure of African proverbs to make his messages and attitudes less severe and judgemental in “Dead Men’s Path”. However, both authors use structure effectively to infer meaning. In addition, Alice Walker uses extensive description through ‘Mama’ to indicate the time in which the story is written as well as the vocabulary and ‘uneducated’ way in which ‘Mama’ speaks. When referring to a fantasy, in which she would be reunited with her eldest daughter Dee, ‘Mama’ states that she would like to be: “…the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake.” This is not only a flippant remark about her looks, ‘Mama’ has thought deeply about exactly how she ‘should’ look as a modern African-American woman in the opinion of her daughter. The use of the phrase ‘uncooked barley pancake’ is also representative of the historical context of the text. It is an unusual phrase that is probably common to the Southern Americans of ‘Mama’s generation, and is colloquial in tone; this shows how personal the character is to Walker and how closely she can identify the character with someone she knows from that generation. Phrases of this nature and others that convey ‘Mama’ as uneducated and ‘country’ such as: “These old things was just done by me and Big Dee…” give authenticity to the character, making her a vessel for the inherent American heritage shared by Walker herself. The tendency to imply rather than state throughout “Everyday Use” is seen through ‘Mama’s’ extensive description of events. This is evidenced in the text when ‘Mama’ describes the previous family home burning down: “Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggie's arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes. Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflected in them. And Dee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red hot brick chimney. Why don't you do a dance around the ashes' I'd wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much.” ‘Mama’ describes Maggie’s ordeal and Dee’s unemotional reaction in such detail that it creates a vivid image of the house burning down; however she is unable to state exactly what happened, the reader is left to contemplate Dee as a character before she is even introduced in the story. Walker, towards the end of the text, introduces some African vocabulary in the form of Dee’s new ‘African’ name: “Wangero”. This represents the final clash between modern attitudes (represented in Dee) and traditional African-American ideals (represented in Maggie). The use of the new African names and the description of Dee’s new appearance: “A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes… her sister's hair. It stands straight up like the wool on a sheep. It is black as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards disappearing behind her ears.” juxtapose Maggie’s appearance and demeanour. Walker again uses language and description to convey the underlying meanings within the text. The implicit, ambiguous narration by ‘Mama’ throughout the text and vivid description leaves the events within the story open to interpretation by the reader; this again allows the reader to become emotionally involved with the characters and therefore to receive the text’s connotations more readily. Contrastingly, Achebe does not place emphasis on description in “Dead Men’s Path”. The only extensive description within the text pertains to the flowers in the school yard. After Nancy plants the flowers, they make the school yard look beautiful but are eventually destroyed by the end of the story. It is important to note here that Achebe names the flowers precisely by Latin name and concise depiction of colour. This is an important device that Achebe employs to symbolise the consequences of destroying something old to create something new. Achebe, whose father was also a Head Teacher of a school in Nigeria, is very educated. This is always evident in his works; Achebe does not use any colloquial terms and is always grammatically correct. It can therefore be said that his education has impacted on the text; his straightforward and linear use of language succeeds in keeping the reader focused on the content of the story. However, Achebe uses proverb within the text, not as a way of keeping the attention of the reader, but so as to draw philosophical reflection between the village priest and his own ideologies and attitudes towards African and western culture. Moreover, the symbolism within both “Everyday Use” and “Dead Men’s Path” are the most vital areas in which both authors are able to convey meaning and highlight the themes within these two texts. Walker’s recurring symbol in most of her works pertains to the use of quilts. In this story, the quilt has become the main metaphor of American cultural identity; thus, the quilt represents culture and heritage. The characters’ views on the quilt form the basis of their views on culture and heritage: Dee is primarily focused on the quilts as an accessory to her superficial undertaking of the pan-Africanist ideology, whereas Maggie is appreciative of the family history as demonstrated by her love to quilt. Thus, exemplifying the story as an exploration of the idea of heritage applicable to African-Americans. Another prominent symbol within the text is that of the fire which destroyed the first family home. Although it is merely implied, the occurrence of Dee burning down the house represents her detachment from, and disdain of, her traditional African-American heritage. The burns and deformation of Maggie can then be seen to be representative of the decay of the significance of American heritage amongst the black youth within American at the time. The consequences of the fire suggest that you cannot destroy something old to make way for something new, the two must exist in harmony; this is an attitude shared by Chinua Achebe. Achebe uses the flowers in the school yard to symbolise new, vivid and exciting advances in Nigerian independence. Achebe’s detailed description of the flowers and their effect on the school yard emphasises their importance in the text: “…dream-gardens came to life with the coming of the rains, and blossomed. Beautiful hibiscus and allamanda hedges in brilliant red and yellow marked out the carefully tended school com-pound from the rank neighbourhood bushes…” Following this, at the end of the story Achebe describes the flowers again: “The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right round the school, the flowers trampled to death …” Personifying the flowers as being ‘trampled to death’ brings forth the attitude that destroying something old to create something new will end in tragedy as an African proverb states: ‘you cannot build a house unless you have a strong foundation’. This is then further exemplified by the white commissioner disregarding Michael Obi’s implementation of European values in the school and holding him in the same esteem as the villagers upon whom he looked so disdainfully. This again reinforces the attitude of Achebe towards replacing rooted African culture with modern westernised ideologies. The fact that both authors only employ vivid colourful imagery only slightly throughout these short stories is the most effective literary technique used by both Achebe and Walker. Alice Walker uses structure, language and description to create metaphor and convey meaning within the text; using symbols of the quilts and the fire create vivid images for the reader and therefore strengthen the themes upon which the text is based. Chinua Achebe does not use significant literary techniques in “Dead Men’s Path”; the content of the story is a metaphor in itself and is effective in its own right. Upon analysing these two anthologised short stories it is clear that Chinua Achebe and Alice Walker are both pioneering and inspirational writers. These two authors present conscientious ideas and messages within their literature; however, the intriguing thing about both Achebe and Walker as writers is the intricate and subtle ways in which they both convey similar themes in entirely converse ways, invoking a range of thought-provoking images and emotions within readers. This differentiation in writing style is reflected by their diverse social and cultural backgrounds in an inspirational way. Bibliography Sexton, Timothy (2007) “Identity Confusion in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”” USA: Rutgers University press White, David (2001) “’Everyday Use’: Defining African-American Heritage.” Available at: http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/alicew/davidwhite.htm [Accessed 22/02/2010] ----------------------- “Walker endeavours to find an intersection between African and American tradition” “Achebe relays the importance of upholding traditional African values in a subtle way” “Achebe uses the flowers in the school yard to symbolise new, vivid and exciting advances in Nigerian independence” “Walker purports that the consequences of the fire suggest that you cannot destroy something old to make way for something new”