Heritage. Learning your family's history can open you up to a whole new perspective on the past and how it might affect you in the future. The story "Everyday Use" is about a family of two sisters, Maggie and Dee, and their mom. The younger daughter, Dee, comes home after being at school for a while, and she has changed. She now believes that she knows everything there is to know about her culture and heritage. She wants to take objects that are meaningful to her away from her mom and sister because she thinks that they don’t appreciate their heritage. The theme, everyone has a different meaning of heritage, is shown in the short story "Everyday Use" written by Alice Walker. This theme is illustrated during significant moments like when Mama …show more content…
Dee says, "‘you just don’t understand." Mama says, "What don’t I understand?" and Dee replies, "Your heritage" (6). After Mama gives the quilts to Maggie, Dee gets mad and says that they don’t understand their heritage. Dee says that their lives will not become anything if they stay where they are. "You ought to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it" (6). While Dee was at school, she learned about her heritage, and because she got that education that Mama and Maggie didn’t get, she thinks she is superior to them and knows more. Dee also thinks that they need to be exposed to the outside world and see how much it has changed. As you can see, since going to school, Dee has become a more confident character and thinks she knows the most about their heritage out of everyone in the family. Dee’s way of showing her heritage is through historical objects.
Finally, the last moment in "Everyday Use" that shows the theme that everyone has a different meaning of heritage is when Dee changes her name. When Dee comes home from school as a new person, she also comes with a new name. Mama and Maggie are surprised by