Alice Walker Heritage

In “Everyday Use” Alice Walker shows the hardships and conflicts of African Americans lives during the late twentieth century. The story takes place in the 1960’s, and shows of the social differences that blacks would experience during this black power movement. Many blacks in America don’t think or care about their heritage and ancestry, but some focused on connecting with past roots. Alice Walker shows through the story of the two different ways of dealing with African American pasts and heritage.

At the beginning of the story, Maggie, the narrator’s daughter, shows signs of the scars from slavery. By doing this when we are first introduced to Maggie, it shows that this is going to be a conflict through the story. First, she has scars
and bruises from a fire in her previous house, “ She will stand hopelessly in the corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs”(853). I think Walker says that to show how slavery can damage someones body on the physical level. Also, her attitude shows how she is after being enslaved for a period of time: “She has been like this, chin to chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since that fire that burned the other house to the ground”(853).

Dee, Mama’s oldest daughter, is an educated photographer who seems lost within her heritage.
She wears bright colored dresses that are inappropriate for the weather and also has changed her name to Wangero. Even though her mother accepts her when she said “ She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts”(854), she doesn’t accept her attitude and personality when she said “she would always look anyone in the eye”(854). This shows that blacks during this time of the movement are basically reflected by Dee. Dee showed her pride of the movement and also showed how she isn’t certain of the movement. Alot of people during this time are trying to find their inner pride and heritage, but for Dee and most other African Americans during this time it is hard to. Dee is very smart, and has attended college but seems to lack an understanding of her past
heritage.

As the story went on I could tell that Dee and Maggie had different approaches to the situation. Dee wants to move on with her life and her new boyfriends, while leaving behind her past heritage. Maggie wants to hold onto that heritage and really get to know where she came from. The burning of the house symbolizes this:

Sometimes I can hear the flames and feels Maggie’s arm sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off in little black papery flakes… Dee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of… Why don’t you do a dance around the ashes? I’d wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much. (855)

The house symbolizes the black power movement in a certain way. Dee was not in the house and watched it burn to the ground from outside. This means that Dee wants to get away from her past and move on with her new life. Maggie was stuck in the house while it burned, and she came out with scars and battle wounds from the fire. Maggie represents someone who doesn’t want to move on with their heritage- they want to embrace it and hold onto it for as long as possible, unlike Dee.

The quilts are another big symbol in “Everyday Use” and also contribute to conflict between the sisters and their mother. These quilts are a living piece of the past that have been handed down from generation to generation through their family. The quilts show of the hardships, poverty, and slavery of their family’s past. There is a connection of generations through these quilts, but Dee’s lack of understanding of her history shows she doesn’t deserve them. If Dee gets the quilts she will hang them on the wall, which means she wants to use the quilts as style and fashion, rather than using them to represent her family’s past. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use”(856). This is ironic because Dee is the one who can’t actually appreciate the quilts for what they are. Just like how Dee doesn’t understand her name and how it has been passed down from generation to generation, she also doesn’t understand the significance of the quilts.

The mother doesn’t agree with either Maggie or Dee Throughout the story until the end.
She seems confused as to what the black power movement actually means. She realizes the people of the movement don’t actually understand what their parents and ancestors actually went through. At the beginning of the story, the mother seems confused on to where she stands in the black power movement.This is because she doesn’t know how to connect her history of slavery and poverty to her new rights of being a black woman. For example, Mama acknowledges Dee’s new name when she says, “I’ll get used to it”(853). Her standpoint obviously changes and doesn’t accept Dee for changing her name and having a lack of understanding for her
heritage.

Later in the story, Mama eventually rejects Wangero and makes the decision to accept Maggie. Maggie feels guilty when Dee insists on taking the quilts, so she tells Dee to take them because she can remember Grandma Dee without the quilts. After Maggie said that, Mama says,

I looked at her hard. She had filled her bottom lip with cherckerberry snuff and it gave her face a kind of dopey hangdog look. It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself. She stood there with her scarred hands hidden in the folds of her skirt. (856)

Right then Mama realizes something when she is looking at her hard. She sees her daughter’s scarred up hands and to Mama it represents the heritage of her family and where they came from. She also sees Grandma Dee and Big Dee in her as well, which she doesn’t see in Dee- the one who denied the denied the name passed down. The mother now realizes who should rightfully take the quilts, and she tells Dee “no.”
Walker does a good job by showing the challenges of the black power movement through the conflicts between Mama, Maggie and Dee. The main purpose in the story is to realize how challenging the black power movement may be and to respect your heritage. African Americans pasts have been filled with injustice, slavery, and many other hardships while in America. Thats why Walker wrote this story- to show us that African American heritage is real.