Everyday Use Heritage Essay

People can often be ignorant of their own heritage. In a story that I read called “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker, many conflicts and struggles are noticed that this African-American family faces. Here, in the story we have Dee who is visiting from college, Maggie who is shy and still lives with Mama, and Mama who is a big-boned heavy-set women poor and uneducated. The meaning of heritage and culture is what this family suffers from, let’s discuss the events and symbols that occur throughout the story of “Everyday Use”. In the story “Everyday Use” Dee has changed her name to “Wangero” meaning “Wow” which is an African name. Dee (Wangero) feels as though this name is dead due to it being passed down from her Aunt, grandmother …show more content…
Dee (Wangero) wants to be in touch with her
African Roots, so she will go through changing things about herself to accomplish that, instead of being happy with whom she really is and where she came from. Now that we’ve discussed the conflicts this family suffers from, as well as the symbols presented in “Everyday use” we can see that Dee (Wangero) and Mama have two different meanings when it comes to heritage. The quilts in the story have showed that Dee’s (Wangero) perspective is that Mama and Maggie are living in the past by putting the quilts to everyday Use and they should be preserved. Mama wants their heritage and culture to go on forever and to not just be left in the past. Dee (Wangero) doesn’t realize that it’s all surrounded by family history and can’t just be forgotten or displayed as if they are a piece of art. Dee (Wangero) creates a lot of problems for her family, Maggie who is scared of Dee (Wangero) and Mama who just wants Dee (Wangero) to appreciate all she has done for her being a single mother. Mama can see what her family suffers from Mama will not put her foot down, until she hands the quilt to
Maggie. In the end, Maggie and Mama will live through their families Heritage, and