Everyday Use, And Seamus Heaney s Digging - 1152 Words

Family traditions/heritage is an aggregate of attitude, ideas, ideals and the environment, which a person inherits from his parents/ancestors. Individual identity entails aspect of one’s life that no one has control over, i.e., race, the color of skin, beliefs, etc. These family traditions and cultural legacies play a detrimental role in influencing one’s self-identity, which can be both negative and positive. A positive legacy consists of the trait that is inherited from consistent, diligent and thoughtful families. On the other hand, negative legacies are the ones that face opposition or rejection and are unwelcome in the family. Latter seem more prevalent in cases of adopting cultural shifts where an individual rejects legacies that were carried on for generations, and adopt a new way of life and be him/herself. Alice Walker’s â€Å"Everyday Use† and Seamus Heaney’s â€Å"Digging† have a common central theme that is to show us how an indi vidual breaks their family traditions and embrace a new way of life, and the consequences faced after that turnout. A very little to almost none is known about my family history because of the backwardness of the eastern culture as opposed to that of the west. Our forefathers are said to have been nomads all their lives searching pasturelands for their cattle and cultivating land for the subsistence farming. They bartered animals for salt, hides, clothing, etc. Civilization remained unheard to them until after mid-eighteenth century. OurShow MoreRelatedThe Heritage Of The Past1402 Words   |  6 PagesThe recognition of heritage in Alice Walker’s â€Å"Everyday Use† and Seamus Heaney’s â€Å"Digging,† approach the nourishment of heritage in different ways. Heaney diversifies the heritage of a father and grandfather digging in the potato fields, through an identity as a poet, by â€Å"digging† with a pen. However, Walker recognizes heritage through the heirlooms of quilts made by a grandmother, but rebels against the heritage by fulfilling a new identity. Heaney and Walker acknowledge and revere heritage, but