Socioeconomic and Cultural Aspects of Civil Disobedience

This essay provides an analysis of the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of the civil disobedience movement, focusing on Alice Walker's story, 'Everyday Use,' and its relevance to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The essay explores the cultural changes, misunderstandings, and differing perspectives within the movement, as depicted through the characters of Dee, Mama, and Maggie. It examines the socioeconomic impact, the role of cultural beliefs, and the contrasting philosophies of moderate and extremist factions, including the Black Panther party. The analysis highlights the symbolic armed conflict, cultural differences, and the main vision that created the Black power movement of 1970. The essay uses the PIER method to compare the story to real-life events of that time period, providing a comprehensive historical and cultural context.

Socioeconomic and cultural aspects of
civil disobedience movement
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Table of Contents
Literature review........................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
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Literature review
According to the story, ‘Everyday use’ by Alice walker describes the time of the black
movement in America. The writer explains that at that time there was a miscomprehension of
the cultural beliefs, vision, and ideals of the black power movement. This movement started
in the 1970s, due to the excessive amount of oppression done on the African American
people by the white people in America. According to the historical data, it is evident that the
youth was the main strength of the blacks. According to the story, there is a black character
‘Dee’ using a fancy car and wearing a white dress. The character has a good amount of
significance to the situation that prevailed in that time. The cultural beliefs were changing at
that time1. The youth started to believe that, the black people are beautiful and they should be
resembled as equal with the white people. Before this, the black people were not treated as
equal and they were treated like slaves of the white people, but during the black movement in
1970, the beliefs were slowly changing. The traits of the character Dee have a certain amount
of similarities with the traits of the author. The author Alice Walker pursued her studies
without any support from her father. The character in the story Dee is to some extent related
to the Author. If the traits are compared then both of them are ambitious and have scholarly
intellectual attitudes. Alice Walker worked for the civil rights Movement in Georgia. By
comparison, it may be seen that the traits of Alice are incorporated into the Character of Dee.
The Story may be compared with the real life Experience of Alice in the civil movement of
Georgia. The Socioeconomic and cultural perspective of the revolution is depicted in an
effective way in the story ‘Everyday Use’.
Through the story, Walker has depicted two sides of the black movement, which is quite
relevant to the situation at the time of the Black Power Movement2. If the historical
perspective is seen, there were two kinds of beliefs. One was the moderate belief of those
who thought of revolt by not changing their ancestral cultural beliefs. On the other hand, the
other group had an extremist philosophy. They did care about their culture but the only aim
of that group was to end the oppression of the white people over the black people of the
country. This ideal situation gave rise to the Black Panther party. The Black Panther party
was formed by the philosophy of the left extremist ideas. According to the story, ‘Mama’ and
1 Tate and Christian 1996
2 "Black America In The Shadow Of The Sixties: Notes On The Civil Rights Movement, Neoliberalism, And
Politics" 2015
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‘Maggie’ are the two characters who are on the peaceful side whereas the character ‘Dee’ is
portrayed as an extremist. The situation that prevailed at that time had a major difference in
the opinion among the people.
The Black Panther party’s focus was to gain freedom for the African American black people
in any way possible. In the story, the main character, ‘Mama’ depicts a situation, where a
quilt was made with different pieces of cloth of the ancestors is one of the cultural beliefs of
the black people. The two daughters ‘Maggie’ and ‘Dee’ had a difference in opinion for use
of the quilt. This mainly depicts the difference in the ideals among them. According to the
story, there is a character named ‘Hakim’ who is a Muslim. At that time, the black Muslims
had to work like slaves under the cruel treatment of the white masters. In the story, through
Hakim, Walker wants to depict the change in the ideology due to the demand for freedom.
Moreover, in the story, it is seen that Hakim respects his religion and the cultural beliefs but
still his primary focus is to strengthen the Black Panther party and to free the African
American people from their white oppressors.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it may be said that Walker’s ‘Everyday use’ symbolizes the armed conflict
between the Black Panther party militants and the American police. Another important point
that may be analyzed and inferred from this story is the difference in the cultural beliefs that
was the main component of the black movement. The comparison among the philosophies is
mainly done by Walker to analyze the main vision that created the Black power movement of
1970.
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