Momentous Treasure
...his when her mother calls her “Dee.” She wants people to call her “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo,” not knowing that Dee is actually a name based on the ancestors and heritage of their family, which has been passed down through generation and generation. The contradiction of culture and heritage becomes more apparent as Dee begins to admire the quilts that were made out of "scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty years ago…bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece...that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform he wore in the Civil War” (97). Even though her mother has already given her a quilt to take away for university, Dee tells her that it is old fashioned and out of style. Dee is aware that quilts are hand made by her ancestors; however, she does not grasp the tradition and history behind them. Her mother knows the tradition and history of the quilts, which remind her of her ancestors. Moreover, she does not just display them; she puts them to everyday use. Dee wants the quilts not to acknowledge her culture and ancestors but to impress her friends with their artistic looks. In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker shows that one’s heritage is not something that can be adopted. It is, instead, something that is taught from one generation to the next while putting the culture’s artifacts to everyday use. While Walker describes Dee as a character who fails to understand her heritage while eagerly trying to claim it, Amy Tan, in her story, “A Pair of Tickets,” describes Jandale Woo, who is fully Americanized, as a character who finally recognizes her Chinese identity. At first, Jandale did not realize “what it means to be Chinese” (133). She writes, “When I was fifteen and had vigorously denied that I had any Chinese whatsoever below my skin…all my Caucasian friends agreed; I was about as Chinese as they were” (133). Jandale denied her heritage at first; however, while she travels to Guanzhou with her father to meet his aunt, she begins to learn more about Chinese culture as she realizes that she has “never really known what it means to be Chinese” (133). After she arrives in China and while she stays at hotel, she learns more about her mother by hearing her father and his aunt conversing about her. Jandale hears about her two twin half-sisters whom her mother had to abandon on her attempt to flee from the Japanese. She says, “I lay awake thinking about my mother’s story, realizing how much I have never known about her, grieving that my sisters and I had both lost her” (146). Jandale was at first excited and happy to see her twin half-sisters but yet she felt more pain and sorrow as she learns more about her mother. After arriving at Shanghai, meeting her two sisters, and while embracing them, Jandale feels possessed by Chinese roots, as her mother had predicted. When she first saw her sisters, they reminded of her mother. Moreover, after taking a Polaroid picture together, she says, “although we don’t speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished with” (147). Jandale has finally realized her hidden Chinese blood, that China is part of her life as a heritage, and she says, “And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood” (146). Readers have learned the momentous value in life regarding their culture through two different stories: one as a failure to acknowledge identity and one as a success in gaining back identity. The setting and the point of view in Tan’s story have helped the readers to fully absorb the story. Having the story take place in China helped it to become more realistic for the reader. The reader can empathize with Jandale as she traces her Chinese roots and becomes in touch with her heritage and her pa...