Heritage in Everyday Use

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A Family's Old and New Heritage

"Everyday Use" begins with Mama and her youngest daughter, Maggie, awaiting the arrival of Mama's eldest daughter, Dee, at their family home. Within the second paragraph of the story, the reader is given a harsh perspective of Maggie's personality and perception of her older sister; Maggie is "homely and ashamed of the burn scars... eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that ‘no' is a word the world never learned to say to her" (106). Alice Walker utilizes Mama's point of view, as well as Mama's flashbacks in time, to convey one family's conflicting views regarding heritage and tradition.

Because the reader is limited solely to Mama's first person point of view and her own descriptive memories regarding Dee's past, the idea of her family's cultural heritage is presented in such a way as to have the reader side with Mama at the conclusion of the story. Mama contrasts and compares Dee with Maggie. Dee is described as "the child who has ‘made it'" (106), while Maggie is pitifully compared with a lame animal; "have you ever seen a lame animal... sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this... ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground" (107). Dee is strong, sure of herself, has her own style, has big goals set in place for herself and eventually is sent off to college. However, Dee did not really maintain strong friendships, she more than likely chased them all off with her "faultfinding power" (109). Mama states she herself did not have an education; her school just closed down. "Don't ask me why," she says, "in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they did now" (108). Maggie seems to humbly understand her own station in her life and within her family, she is to marry John Thomas and live a quiet, simple life.

When Dee arrives at the family home, Maggie and Mama are surprised to see Dee accompanied with a man with hair seemingly everywhere and notice that Dee is dressed in bright colors and has let her own hair "stand straight up like the wool on a sheep" (109).

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