Theme of Heritage in Everyday Use by Alice Walker Essay Example

What is Heritage? Heritage helps people understand our past and how our society has changed our traditions. Knowing our heritage can help us understand why we are the way we are. Author Alice Walker illustrates this theme in her short story “Everyday Use”. “Everyday Use” is written from a woman’s point of view explaining the story of how she and her two daughters have lived in poverty for years which shows their “conflicting ideas about their identities and ancestry” (123helpme). Maggie, who is the youngest daughter, is a part of the “traditional” and African American culture and understands her immediate familial heritage. On the other hand, Dee, the oldest daughter, has forgotten where she grew up and is now a part of the “Back to Africa”. When Dee makes her arrival home, things become tense as she expects to claim old family quilts and hang them as art, but her mother thinks that Maggie should get them because she will value them as artifacts of family heritage. Walker uses symbolism such as quilts, Dee’s clothing, and the changing of her name and Mama’s point of view to develop this theme in her short story “Everyday Use”. 

Initially, Walker develops this theme through depictions of the quilts in the short story. The quilts are a representation of their family traditions and heritage. Therefore, when Dee comes home to visit, she wants the quilts. “Can I have these old quilts”(Walker 57)? She is asking for the quilts to “hang them” to show where she comes from an abstract and cultural sense. The idea of heritage to her is taking something from the past understanding it as “folk art” and claiming it “priceless” (Wilson 3). Mama feels that Maggie should get them because she would cherish them by putting them to everyday use. Maggie tells Dee she could have the quilts simply because she can remember where she came from and Grandma Dee without having them. 

When Maggie said this Mama felt like she deserved them, so she hugged Maggie, who was “used to never winning anything or having anything reserved for her” (Wilson 3). Dee’s clothing is also a symbol that represents her new identity. Unlike Maggie with a pink skirt and red blouse representing her American heritage, Dee arrives home dressed differently representing her African heritage. I know this because the text stated: A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out. Earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arm up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits. The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it. I hear Maggie go “Uhnnnh” again. It is her sister’s hair. It stands straight up like the wool on a sheep. It is black as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards disappearing behind her ears. (Walker 54) Dee’s changing of her name is also a symbol that develops the two opposing ideas of heritage. According to the text, “Well, I say. Dee. No, Mama, she says. Not ‘Dee’, Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo! What happened to ‘Dee’? I wanted to know. She’s dead, Wangero said. I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker 55). This shows that Dee is representing an African name that is not apart of her family roots and heritage.

Finally, Walker expresses the theme of heritage through Mama’s point of view. Her voice helps us learn what she thinks about her daughters, Maggie and Dee, and how they all view heritage differently. Mama thinks that heritage should be put to everyday use and passed down, but Dee thinks otherwise because she feels that it is something in the past that should be used as a piece of art. Walker states, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use. I reckon she would. I said. God knows I been saving ’em for long enough with nobody using ’em. I hope she will”  (58). Mama feels that Dee views herself as belonging to a higher social class than her and Maggie, and when she comes around, they should feel honored by her presence (Hoel 2). With her short story, “Everyday Use”, Walker is able to discuss the different idea individual family members has about heritage and how it is important. The symbolism and point of view expressed in the short story all support Walker’s message because it shows the readers the central meaning of why the quilts were so important to represent their family ties. Through the device of quilts, Walker shows the hypocrisy of African Americans denying their immediate American roots while claiming African heritage. She wants the readers to understand how important understanding your heritage is because once you come from somewhere but move on you shouldn’t forget about where you once were. 

Works Cited

Hoel, Helga.  "Personal Names and Heritage:  Alice Walker’s 'Everyday Use'." 2000.

Trondheim Cathedral School, Trondheim, Norway.  30 Jan. 2000.

Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. Retrieved from https://nwsaenglishii.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/everyday-use.pdf. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.

"Everyday Use." Short Stories for Students, edited by Kathleen Wilson, vol. 2, Gale, 1997, pp. 36-50. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2694900012/GVRL?u=mag_c_magn0119&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=4bf8647e. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.