Defining African-American Heritage in Everyday Use by Alice Walker

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In “,Everyday Use,”, Alice Walker tells a story of a mother’,s problematic relationship with her two daughters. At this side, “,Everyday Use”, tells that how a mother little by little refuses the cursory values of her older, successful daughter at the aspect of the practical values of her younger, less fortunate daughter. On a deeper side, Alice Walker looks for the concept of heritage and its norms as it applies to African-Americans.

“,Everyday Use”, is set in the late ‘,60s or early ‘,70s. This was a time when African-Americans struggled to define their personal identities and values in their cultural terms. They were called as “,Black”, instead of “,Negro”,. It means that the people’,s attitudes over them changed. There was “,Black Power,”, “,Black Nationalism,”, and “,Black Pride.”, These were the significant concepts supported by the “,Black”,people. Many Blacks wanted to learn their African ancestors and refused their American heritage, which were full of pain and injustice stories. In “,Everyday Use,”, Alice Walker claims that an African-American is both African and American, and to reject the American side unmannerly of one’,s heritage is of one’,s roots and, thus, injurious to one’,s self. She uses the basic characters of Mama, Dee (Wangero), and Maggie to tell this theme.

Mama tells the story. Mama describes herself as “,a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man”, (Walker, “,Everyday Use”, 408). This definiton, along with her reference to a second grade education (409), guides the reader to understand that this woman takes vanity in the practical sides of her nature and she does not use a great deal of time thinking abstract concepts such as heritage. However, her lack of education does not prevent her from having an inherent comprehending of heritage related and based on her love and respect for her ancestors. This is clear from her ability to relate to a pieces of fabric in two quilts with the people whose clothes they had been cut from:

In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more

years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’,s Paisley shirts. And one teeny

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