Kyle Taylor-Jones

Mrs. Manning

Advanced English II

31 October 2016

Cultural Identity is the way someone culturally acts. It can be created by a collaboration

between one's peers or elders. Cultural identity has been written about in many novels, poems,

and short stories. One example of cultural identity is in Patricia J. Williams' "Ethnic Hash,"

which is about how Williams learned her heritage through food. In Alice Walker's short story

"Everyday Use" cultural identity is often seen while the character Dee is visiting her Mama and

sister Maggie. In the texts, the authors observe that heritage is often used to enhance one's

knowledge and love of their history.

In both of these pieces the idea of heritage is found often. In her essay Williams writes,

"I've always thought of myself as just plain black"(11). This means that she never thought much

of her heritage and didn't look past that. Likewise, in Walker's short story Dee was similar in her

dialogue with her mother, "'Hang them,' she said. As if that was the only thing you could do with

quilts." This excerpt shows how dee respects her heritage, as a way to decorate her house, as she

churlishly hovered over the quilts that she wanted. Just like Williams in the beginning of her

essay, Dee never thought about her heritage and she never looked deeply into it.

Just as "Ethnic Hash" and "Everyday Use" have similarities, they have differences in their

opinion on heritage. In "Ethnic Hash" Williams evolves and realizes something about herself and
writes, "Who am I to cling to the limitations of the past?"(12). At this point in "Ethnic Hash"

Williams realizes that she shouldn't stay hidden as she was when she was a child. She decided to

open up and welcome her past and learn her heritage. Through this she found something that

showed her heritage and helped to teach others, whereas Dee in "Everyday Use" doesn't. Walker

wrote, "'What happened to Dee?' I wanted to know. 'She's dead,' Wangero said. 'I couldn't bear it

any longer, being named after the people who oppress me'" (62). Dee couldn't let go of her

memories of people that "oppress" her. She held onto her memories and always dwelled on them

and limited herself by doing that.

Similar to Williams, my cultural identity was greatly effected by food. I have learned of

many different cultures spanning from Cajun to Scandinavian, as my family celebrates Christmas

in a variety of ways and every year is celebrated in a different culture. This has allowed me to

change my cultural identity to include things from different cultures and learn more about how

other cultures have Christmas. Cultural identity is important for many reasons, such as how

people hold themselves and how people act. Cultural identity is why people do what they do and

how they act and what they believe and most of that comes from their heritage as well as their

peers.