Everyday Use by Alice Walker
josh
If WWI is seen as the sort of “kick off” of the Modernist period, many view WWII as the start of the Post-Modern Era. Baym, et. al. indicates that while the Modernists were unsettled by the chaos and destabilization that the first World War brought about, the Post Modernists actually celebrated that “heterogeneity”: “A hallmark of the postwar period is its shift from unity to diversity as an ideal” (Baym, et. al, 2008, p. 2313). FOR THE ESSAY: Consider how the “post-modern” writers deal with diversity and a variety of experiences in ways that are different from the Modernists. Focus on that larger issue of the past and tradition in a Everyday Use, by Alice Walker. The goal here is to really consider what distinctions you see, if any, in those concerns as they are handled by Post Modernist writers versus the earlier writers.
