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Everyday Use By Alice Walker

832 Words4 Pages

Inheriting the Heritage
The dictionary definition of heritage is: property that is or may be inherited. What happens when multiple people are in line to inherit the heritage? In the short story "Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, two sisters, Maggie and Dee, want to inherit their family heritage of quilts handmade by their grandma and other relatives. Mama has to make the decision on which of her two daughters gets to have the quilts and she made the correct decision to give Maggie the quilts rather than Dee.
Dee has never respected or taken an interest in her heritage until now. For instance, when Mama offered Dee a quilt before she went away to college and she declined, “. . . she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style” (120). Dee …show more content…

Whereas, Dee has said she would hang up the quilts and admire them from afar, while “‘[Maggie would] probably . . . put [the quilts] to everyday use’” (120). Rather than using the quilts as decoration, how Dee plans to use them, Maggie would genuinely use the quilts by loving and cherishing them until they are worn out. By using the quilts for what they are intended for, Maggie is respecting her grandma and other family members who put their time and effort into making the quilts. In the event that Maggie uses the quilts until they are completely worn out, she would be able to restore them since “‘Maggie knows how to quilt.’ . . . ‘It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself’” (120). Maggie took the time to learn her family’s tradition of quilt making and made memories with her relatives and the quilt while learning, resulting in Maggie likely having feelings of fondness towards the quilt. Maggie is able to continue the tradition of quilt making and pass down the tradition, keeping it alive, unlike Dee, who would be ending the tradition of quilting due to her not putting the effort into learning how to quilt. Maggie has made memories with her family members and the quilt and is also able to continue the quilt making tradition for further

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In the essay “An Overview of Everyday Use” the author Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton explains in detail the significance of quilting in the short essay “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. She discusses how walker uses quilt making in many other stories and essays that she creates. Marton goes on to talk about the characters in the story Maggie and Dee comparing them to one another when it comes to the quilt. Marton Explains that Dee returned home trying to take the quilt for fashion that she before thought of as “out of style” and doesn’t appreciate nor see the heritage behind the quilt. Being that she is ashamed of her past she tells Maggie that she won’t ever be anything if she continues to stay around in what kept them oppression,

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Dee (Wangero) tries to convince her mother that the quilts are much too important to be used, saying, “But they’re priceless!” She then attempts to state that she would take amazing care and would hang the quilts, ‘...as if it were the only thing you could do with quilts.’ Here, she tries to use the persuasive mood of concern, trying to draw concern out of her mother for how the quilts should be cared for. Dee (Wangero) knows that her mother cares about the quilts and wants the best for them, but they have clashing views on how that happens, and Dee (Wangero) tries to tip her mother toward her perspective through appealing to her sense of worry on what could happen to the quilts since they seem to be the only connection presented to their

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She also shows that she does not recognise or understand the heritage and the past of the quilts as she has rejected her own family's past, our past together as a family,Maggie and I. In her attempt to embrace her African roots. Therefore, considering how the quilts are such an essential relic of Our history, it is perfectly right that they be given to Maggie.

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She found value in the aesthetic appeal of her heritage. During their meal, Dee mentioned that the chute would make for a good “centerpiece”, but her artistic venture did not end there, as Dee’s final move was to have the quilts to “hang them.” Even Maggie knew, or at least had an inkling, how Dee would use the quilt. Maggie “hung back in the kitchen” then their mother “heard something fall in the kitchen” , and later a “kitchen door slammed” immediately after Dee asked to have the quilts. Yet another instance of Dee shunning practicality was her vexed reaction to the machine stitched quilts.

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Mama ultimately decides that she wants to keep the quilts for their sentimental value and to pass them down to future generations. Mama makes an effort to counteroffer and convince Dee to take some other quilts that have less sentimental value. Dee declines, “No, I don't want those. They are stitched around the borders by machine,” and instead asks for “pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear,” (Walker 320). Her decision to keep them symbolizes her desire to maintain the family’s traditions and protect their history.

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Dee defends herself by saying, “‘These are all the pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine!’ She held the quilts securely in her arms, stroking them.” (Walker 1).

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The narrator and her children feel the quilts symbolize generations of war and poverty that their family endured over the years. On the other hand, not all family members share the same appreciation for the quilts. Adopting a different culture after going to college the oldest daughter, Dee, appreciates the quilt for being part of her legacy. She can't believe that the quilt was handmade. "These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear.

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This shows that Maggie views the quilts as a way of remembering her deceased grandmother. It’s not as much about the physical looks of the quilt, but more about them being a passed down memento from her grandmother. In addition, Sarnowski states, “Losing the quilts would not extinguish or reduce Maggie’s sense of heritage, but it would rob her sense of heritage of an affirming token” (Sarnowski 280). Maggie knows what her heritage is and does not necessarily need the quilts to define it. She is happy with the life she lives and although she would be losing this “affirming token” she would still know where she comes

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“the quilts are the central symbol of the story representing the connectedness of history and intergenerational tries of the family” (“everyday use”). This means that the quilts mean heritage and remind the daughters of grand mom dee. The quilts are fought over at the end of the story because of the meaning of them. One daughter wants them for everyday use and one wants them just to have them because it means heritage to her. The mother at the end of the story agrees that they should be used for everyday use.

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So there are two different meaning of heritage because The two sister has a very different attitude toward their heritage. However, the truer one is Maggie’s concept of heritage because it means for her more than a shown popular fashion “things“ it means to love and connection to memories and people. “ Heritage is defined as something that is or can be inherited; such as in culture, tradition, or it can be something of importance” (dictionary.com). In Alice Walker 's short story, "Everyday Use", Dee has recently discovered her heritage, so she returns home with the goal of getting some of her mother’s possessions to put it to her new apartment in the college including the “quilt”. Dee wants to take the quilt that her mother has promised to her sister Maggie.

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As she looks at her quilts, Mama remembers that a certain patch came from her grandfather's paisley shirts, that some pieces came from dresses that Grandma Dee wore 50 years earlier, and even that there was a very small piece of her great-grandfather's Civil War uniform. From this, we can all see how and why they mean so much to her. To Dee, the quilts are a quaint "primitive" art. To Mama and Maggie, they represent more than that. They are family memories, very personal and very special mementos of loved ones who are gone.

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