What where you for Halloween as a child? If you were a witch, you probably had to go buy a hat, a mask, a cape, and a broom to complete the ensemble. Then for one night you carried on as if you were one while speaking in a screechy voice, and cackling laughter. Becoming a witch involves a process, just as assimilation does. In the two short stories, Barbara Mellix's, "From Outside, In," and Alice Walker's, "Everyday Use," they both tell a story of individuals making the necessary steps towards assimilation. From this, there is a process that can be developed from the two stories and the incidents within them. To successfully assimilate ones self, there are a few key elements to doing so. First there is the desire to want to change ones outlook or prospective on life, next you need to embrace the very thing your trying to become, and lastly, and most importantly the element of time is needed to successfully assimilate. In these times of our own society there are some challenges many people go through to assimilate themselves. The challenges lie within the tools an individual uses: lack of human examples, items of value, and an environment to exercise the new adjustment. .
To start the whole process you must first want to change what you already know or believe. To assimilate is to change the way you respond to new situations and to conform to them. In Walker and Mellix's essay, assimilation gave each character a new outlook on life. Wangero through adjustment started to recognize the many things that represented her heritage; also, see the beauty within them. This is evident in this passage, "Oh, Mama!" Wangero cried. "I never knew how lovely these benches are. You can feel the rump prints" (Walker 702). Before Wangero had adjusted herself she paid no attention to the shabby furnishings of her home as a child. Wangero used the material things in her mother's house to help her complete her process of assimilation.