Each of us is raised within a culture, a set of traditions handed down by those before us. As individuals, we view and experience common heritage in completely different ways. Within smaller communities and families, deeply felt traditions serve to enrich this common heritage. Alice Walker uses three different personalities in Everyday Use to portray multiple perspectives on character and heritage that in turn affect and reflect back on themselves.
In this short story, the word "heritage" has two meanings. One meaning for the word "heritage" represents family items, thoughts, and traditions passed down through generation to generation. The other meaning for the word "heritage" represents the African-American culture. Everyone has their own feelings and meaning for the word heritage and in Everyday Use Walker elaborates the meaning of heritage through the points of views of the three characters.
The mother (narrator) gives her individual perspective about her two daughters. In the eyes of the mother the youngest daughter Maggie is very timid and shy. She really does not think much of Maggie at first. The older daughter Dee is the mothers favored, she looks at Dee as being her golden child. Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. (Walker 418) In the eyes of the mother Dee is very confident, beautiful, and has a mind of her own. Maggie on the other hand has very low self-esteem one reason for this is she was seriously burned in the house fire that took place when Maggie and Dee were younger. Dee is described by the mother as being the child who has made it because she has been educated, has moved to the city, and can easily talk to anybody. Maggie is content to be with Mama in their unpretentious home until she marries. (Anderson) All of these wonderful praises about Dee quickly changed when Dee returned for a visit to see Maggie and the mother. The mother saw what Dee has become and was uncomfortable with it. She finally sees that Dee is very selfish and self-centered, and see that Maggie is the golden child after all.
The mother values her heritage deeply; her heritage was her daily life. She is not ashamed of her roots, the little things she do represents her heritage in some kind of way. The mother still uses a butter churn to make her butter by hand and still makes quilts which she learned how to do from her own mother. She also can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. None of these things are particularly glamorous, but it shows that through her heritage, Mother can do all the things her predecessors could. This part of her heritage makes her tough and independent. Mother is very self-sufficiency. She is proud of her ability to do these things, but so much in a way that she thinks her ability to do these things makes her better than others.
Dee is the oldest daughter of the narrator, as a child she hated her heritage and where she came from. Dee always acted as if she was better than her mother and her sister, and she always wanted nothing but the best clothes. When the family house caught fire Dee was standing behind a nearby tree and watched as the house burned down, she was very excited because she hated the house and the meaning behind it. Her mother sent Dee away to school for a better education but the mother did not send Maggie (Dees younger sister), Dee thought was because she was starter than Maggie. The mother did not want Dee to be somewhere where she was not happy thats why she sent her away.
Dee was away for quite some time, she went to college and got her degree, she wrote her mother only a few times. Dee made a trip to see Maggie and her mother after all those years, she become a whole new person with a new name and new outlook at life. Her new name is Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, her reason for doing so was I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me. (Walker 421) Dee disregards the importance of her name, the fact that she was named after her aunt Dicie. Dee distanced herself even further from her family, heritage, and culture despite her "new" name and manner of talking. Not only is she conforming to the worst of American ideals, but she is rejecting and disrespecting her own cultural heritage-- all under the pretenses of preserving it. (Powell) After all the research and studying Dee did in college she realized the wonderful history behind her heritage. During the visit at her mothers house Dee was so overwhelmed with all the family antique her mother still had like the chairs and the butter churn that her uncle made by hand. Dee pretends these items have sentimental value to her. Dee never heard the word no when she wanted something so she was asking her mother for everything because she knew she would get it. Dee was very interested in the top of the butter churn she wanted to use it as a centerpiece for her alcove table. (Walker 423) She wanted the family quilts which mother promised to give to Maggie as a wedding gift; Dee said Maggie cant appreciate these quilts; Shed probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use. (Walker 424) Dee wanted the quilts so she could hang them up as if they were works of art in a museum, the quilts are works of art but they are so much more than that and Dee didnt see it that way. Mother told Dee she could have one or two of the other quilts that were made but those quilts were put together by machine and Dee didnt want them. Maggie was listening to the conversation at the door She can have them, Mama.I can member Grandma Dee without the quilts. At that moment mother realized that Maggie clearly deserved the quilts and Dee didnt.
Maggie is a young girl who is not only physically but also mentally scarred. Maggie was so traumatized from her house burning down that she became a timid and underappreciated little girl. Maggie is so self-conscious that her mom says she walks like a dog run over by a car: chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground. (Walker 418) This shows that Maggies lack of self-confidence makes her scared to make eye contact. She thinks that if she cannot see the people around her, then they cannot see her. Her mother suggests that she may be mentally deficient, so her future does not have much to offer other than being married-off to a man with "mossy teeth". Maggies mother really does not think much of her or her future. Sometimes, Maggie envies her sister Dee. She thinks Dee is a person that "has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her" (Jason B)
Maggies values her heritage more than Dees values her heritage. Maggie rarely talks up to be heard but when she overhears the conversation Dee and her mother was having about the quilts, she told her mother Dee could have the quilts because she could remember their grandmother without the quilts. Maggie learned how to quilt at a young age from her grandmother while Dee was off the college. When it came to who the quilts were going to get pass down to Dee says Maggie did not deserve them because she was going to put them to everyday use. To Maggie, the quilts will serve a simple, yet definite purpose in her home. The quilts will be used for the very reason they were made, to keep people warm. Maggie holds the skills needed, unlike Dee, to repair the quilts if needed. She truly understands her heritage unlike Dees who just do not get it. Maggie wants to maintain a lasting connection with her heritage, and both Mama and the reader recognize this. She represents those among the African-American community that seek to pass on their heritage without diminution between generations. (Powell)
Throughout Alice Walkers story Everyday Use all three of the characters reflects off of each other and learned something about one another that they did not know before. For the mother she saw that she shelter Maggie and that Maggie was smart than what she seemed. As for Dee, the mother finally opened her eyes to see the Dee was very selfish and only cared about herself. Mother now can appreciate Maggie more and treat her fairly. Dee know now that she can be told the word NO; she see her mother and Maggie in a whole new way, she sees how much they values their heritage and they will not be taken away from their roots. Maggie realizes she has to speak up and take up for herself; she no long sees Dee as a threat. Maggie opens her eyes and realize that Dee it not all that great because how you look on the inside matters more than what is on the outside. After the visit the mother, Dee and Maggie all looks at each other and themselves in a whole new light.
"Everyday Use" represents some disagreements in how people value their family history. To some, family does not mean much at all but others are very much aware of their ancestors and the traits that they share in common. Some people use this self-awareness to better themselves while others find ways to utilize it to satisfy their superficial needs. Dee is the type of individual that misuses her heritage. She is using it to fit in and attract the new religious group with which she has begun to associate. Maggie just seems oblivious, although the story does not allow the reader to know what she is thinking. The truth is that Maggie and her mother are living their heritage. This is the lesson that Dee's mother is trying to teach her; to accept and embrace who she really is rather than continuously search for something she is not. She could search for her entire life and never be fulfilled.
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