Family and Heritage in Everyday Use Essay

Literary Analysis for Everyday Use

In Everyday Use Alice Walker writes about a family and their heritage. The mother and daughter, Maggie, are getting prepared for a visit from Dee, Maggies sister, and her husband Hakim. a. barber. While they are visiting, Dee begins to look for old belongings that were in the last house that was burned down, also where Maggie was burned. The most valuable thing the Dee wanted was the quilts that Grandma Dee and Big Dee, her aunt, made long ago. She could not get them because the mother gave them to Maggie, so she gave up and left. Even though Dee was disappointed about not having the quilts, she tells them and readers that the world changes, but a persons heritage, or the way they live their lives, remain constant.

As the mother is cleaning up the house, she begins to talk about some of Dees characteristics. Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure (Walker). This quote shows the contrast between the two sisters looks. In addition to the contrast, Dee is the more mature person in the story. Dee graduated from high school with a style of her own and also went to college. She was more of an upper-class person because she wanted nice things and a higher education. On the other hand, Maggie is the shy person who is insecure about her looks since she was burned in the fire. She is the younger sister with little education. She only knows how to make quilts; both the grandmother and aunt taught her. The mother and daughter cannot wait to see how Dee has grown up. Dees style and personality shows what kind of person she will be in the future.

Dee finally arrives at their house with her husband Hakim. a. barber, or Asalamalakim. When she got out of the car, she had on a loud colored dress with plenty of oranges and yellows all over it. She also had on bracelets dangling on her arm (Walker). This description shows how Dee dresses with her own style; she likes bright colors and shiny jewelry. Since her marriage, she changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo; she did not like the fact that she was named after her grandmother and aunt. After their meet and greet, they all went into the house to get situated for dinner. As they were getting prepared, Dee tells them about her and her husband ways of life.

While they were eating, she notices the benches that they were sitting on. Her feeling on the rump prints of the bench, she starts to reminisce about the old things that the mother had sitting around. As she is looking around the house, she finds the churn top that their uncle whittled out of a tree and the dash that Aunt Dees husband also whittled. After Dee wrapped both of them up, she moved to the trunk at the floor of her mothers bed and took out two quilts. Seeing them made her really want to have them for herself.

As she looks at them, it explains that, They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee (Walker). This shows who made the quilts and it tells that the making of them must have been in the family generation, which it is in their heritage. Dee asks the mother if she could have them, but the mother said no. She offers the other two quilts to Dee; she rejects them because they were made of machine.

Suddenly they start to argue about the quilts and what they were going to do with them. When mother told her that she promised to give them to Maggie when she gets married, Dee gasps n says, Maggie cant appreciate these quilts! Shed probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use (Walker). Dee makes this statement as if Maggie was not going to take care of them. However, she is disappointed that she was supposed to have one already, in which the mother told her when she left for college.

Soon, Dee decides to give up on claiming the quilts to be her own. As she leaves the house to get in the car, she turns to Maggie saying, You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. Its really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live youd never know it (Walker). This statement shows how every day is a new day, but the mother and Maggie will remain doing what they have always done. They will never know what is waiting ahead of them. Dee has experienced many events in her life and she illustrates how life and the world alternate itself often.

Therefore, the world makes a big difference in many lives, due to the many changes that has happened every day. Dee is used in the story as a person who wants to change the way that her family use to live. In Walkers Everyday Use she successfully illustrates her theme about the world and hoe people use it. The character is giving a message to all readers who want to change and be different; Dees life could change many readers way of thinking about their life and how they could adjust it to become a better person. This story sets a prime example of the revolution of the world and society.