Independence

In “Everyday Use” Dee has a complete sense of independence. She grew into a woman that is completely different from her sister and her mother. She took her sense of independence to the extreme by changing her name. Dee does not appreciate the kind of things that her mother and sister do, such as their family heritage. In all these ways Dee is almost completely unconnected with her family.

Dee sees her family as having a negative image. That is why she chooses to separate herself so much from her family. That is a big difference from my sense of independence. Going to college has made me more independent, but I have not taken it to the extreme such as Dee. I am proud of where my family has come from and what my family has accomplished so I see no reason to try and separate myself from them. It also seemed as though Dee and her family did not have a very good relationship because of her independence, but that is not true in my case. I am very close with my family and will remain close with them as I get more and more independent. It seems as though everything that Dee has done, that has made her independent, has just made her grow further and further away from her family.

There are some similarities between Dee and myself, although I cannot really see many. One would be that it is obvious Dee wants to have her own personality and her own identity. I want my own personality and identity. I am not completely like anyone in my family. As I get more and more independent I grow to have my own opinions on things. Just as Dee has her own opinion, I have mine. The difference between how Dee feels and how I feel is that even though I might have a different opinion about something, I still respect someone else’s opinion. From the story, Dee did not seem to have very much respect for anything that did not exactly agree with what she had to say. With Dee’s attitude and independence it seeemed that either she was right or no one was right. So while I too will continue to grow and gain my own opinions on things, I will continue to have respect for other people and their opinions

There are not many similarities between Dee’s sense of independence and my sense of independence. I think the way she acts because of her independence could perhaps get her in trouble some day. I think she took her independence to the extreme and one can definitely tell that by the story.