Staying True To One's Heritage In Everyday Use, By Alice Walker

From the beginning to the end, a mother and a daughter remain true to their heritage, as well as themselves. Meanwhile, the other daughter did not remain true to her heritage, which resulted in a huge consequence. Heritage is the true comprehension of culture and is passed down from generation to generation. In "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker, the theme is to stay true to one's heritage.

Staying true to one’s heritage is understanding and following one’s true culture. In “Everyday Use,” Mama has two daughters. Maggie remains at home, helping Mama with cleaning the yard and sweeping. Mama and Maggie live a simple, quite life staying true to their African culture and upbringing. On the other hand, Dee, Mama’s other daughter, decided to move away

After Wangero’s arrival, they ate dinner. Wangero’s family ate collards, pork, and cornbread; it was a traditional meal. Hakim-a-barber did not eat meat. This imposed an issue at dinner, but Mama did not change their traditional meal because of this. During dinner, Hakim-a-barber spoke of his heritage and said, “they said "Asalamalakim" when they met you, too, but they didn't shake hands. Always too busy” (Walker 291). He spoke of their traditional jobs, feeding cattle and working in the field, and that there was no time for introductions because they were always busy at work. It was a tradition to make everyday use items, these items became part of their tangible heritage. The benches they sat on during dinner were made by Maggie and Wangero’s father. Wangero interrupted dinner and marched into the kitchen. She said, “this churn top is what I need, didn’t Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all used to have?” (Walker 291). Wangero wanted to use the churn top as a centerpiece in her new house. Wangero, again, did value its use. Mama does not view the churn top as a centerpiece, because of her heritage she valued the churn top for its use. Wangero goes on to want the dasher and said, “...and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher” (Walker 292). A dasher is used to hold butter. Again, Wangero values its looks, not its use. She did think about, or value, the traditional use of the churn top or the

Wangero decided to take the quilts from Maggie’s room. The quilts were woven by Grandma Dee and Big Dee. The patterns of the quilts had great meaning, “one was in the Lone Star pattern. The other was Walk Around the Mountain”(Walker 292). The fabrics of the quilts were also important. They were made from Grandma Dee’s dresses, and had a patch from their great grandmother’s civil war uniform. Mama and Maggie, not only valued their fabrics, they believed they were meant to be used, just like the churn top and dasher. Wangero wanted to the display the quilts in her house. Mama wanted these quilts to be used everyday, and did not want them hung on a wall. Mama did not give in, she did not let Wangero have the quilts. Mama tried to explain it was because Wangero no longer valued their heritage. When Wangero does not get her way, she said, “You ought to try to make something of yourself… It’s really a new day for us. But the way you and Mama still live you’d never know” (Walker 294). Wangero believed that Mama and Maggie were living in the past, that they needed to move on. Wangero did not understand how much Mama and Maggie cared about their heritage. Wangero will face the consequences of distance from her family, as they will never see eye to eye on their heritage.

In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker exemplified how the loss of heritage can contribute to the loss of one’s true self. As introduced in the story,