Knowing One's Heritage In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker
Heritage is something a person inherits from one's family. A person's heritage is one's family/ethnic background or past history. Heritage can be a family's past way of life, or something they were known for. Heritage can be what customs or traditions a family followed in the past leading up to the present. One's heritage can be teachings, morals, or objects passed down from an older generation of relatives to the current generations. In the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, the theme of knowing one's heritage is conveyed through characterization, symbolism and conflict.
In "Everyday Use" one of the main characters Dee, mama's oldest daughter, claims to know and understand the family's heritage. In reality, Dee

fails to realize her heritage, and instead creates her own perception of it.

Dee perceives her heritage as a rich African heritage, which can be noted by the bright flashy clothing she wears when visiting Mama and Maggie. Mama describes Dee's dress as "A dress so loud it hurts my eyes" and states that "There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun (Walker 478)." Dee's clothes have nothing to do with her heritage despite what she thinks. Furthermore, Dee treats the family heirlooms like old relics that should be put up for decoration or put in a museum, and fails to see the use in the objects. For example, Dee states "I can use the churn top as a center piece for the alcove table." Instead of putting the churner to practical use Dee wants to use it for show as if putting an artifact on display. Unlike Dee, Maggie is a lot more in touch with her family's true heritage. Maggie may not be as smart as Dee, but she knows more of the heritage passed down to them. Maggie has accepted her heritage, and has been taught a few things from her heritage. Mama has stated "It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself (Walker 481)."

Maggie has learned how to quilt from both grandma Dee and Big Dee and that has made her closer to her heritage and family. It is also why she states, that she does't need the quilts to remember her Grandma unlike Dee who appears to not be close with any relatives. Moreover, Mama like Maggie is not very book smart, stating "I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down." She also states that she had always been better at "A man's job." Not to mention Mama has been through some rough trials of her own. Mama is very intouch with her family's heritage and is a tough strong woman just like her ancestors.
A symbol of Dee's failure to comprehned her heritage is evident when she tells Mama that her name is no longer Dee. "Not 'Dee,' Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!" exclaims Dee as she tells Mama her new name. Dee abandons her original name without ever thinking that her name is a part of her actual heritage. "You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie (Walker 497). Dee's name has been passed down from her great grandmother, to her grandma, to her aunt, and then on to her. Instead of accepting her name, she changes it to Wangero, which has no significance to her family's heritage. Dee fails to grasp the actual orgin of her name, and believes that her old name was just name that came from racism. When in fact her name, Dee, is to comemorate the strength of the women that held that name before her.
In addition, the quilts are a symbol in "Everyday Use." The quilts are pieces of clothing sewn together, and belong to past generations of their family. "These are all pieces of dress Grandma used to wear." The portions of fabric represent the struggle and hardships the family member's overcame and is a sense of pride to the family. The family's rugged ability to overcome obstacles is sewn together, and the quilt helps represent that in their heritage. The quilts also represent the closeness of their family which is not that evident now since Dee and Maggie are not close. "These old things was just done by me and Big Dee from some tops your grandma pieced before she died (Walker 481)." The bonds that hold the quilt are strong just like the bonds of the family members like Big Dee and Mama. The bonds of the quilt and that of Mama and Big Dee shed light on how Maggie and Dee's relationship is distant and faint.
The conflict in the story is man vs man or to be exact Mama vs Dee. Dee wants the quilts that are made from past relatives clothing. The problem is that Mama already had promised the quilts to Maggie. Outraged Dee retorts "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts....She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." Mama responds " I hope she will (Walker 481)!" Mama comes to understand that Maggie rather than Dee should have the quilts because she will respect them by putting them to their designed use. Instead of just having the quilts suspended in a musuem. The conflict ends with Dee shouting "You don't understand....Your heritage (Walker 482). This statement by Dee is ironic because it is in fact Dee who does not comprehend her heritage and has actually rejected it.
Altogther, the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker bears the theme of knowing one's heritage through characterization, symbolism, and conflict. Dee one of the characters rejects the heritage that has been passed down, and creates her own image of her heritage. Dee in turn rejects her name and the deeper meaning of the quilts which ties greatly with the family's hearitage. Conflict arises when Dee asks Mama for the quilts, which are already promised to Maggie. When denied the quilts, Dee ironically questions if Mama and Maggie know their own heritage when in fact it is Dee who does not know the family's heritage. All in all, Mama's family history and heritage will continue through Maggie's everday use of the quilts.