Lost Heritage In Alice Walker S Everyday Use Term paper
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Lost Heritage in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"
By contrasting the family characters in "Everyday Use,"
Walker illustrates the mistake by some of placing the
significance of heritage solely in material objects. Walker
presents Mama and Maggie, the younger daughter, as an example
that heritage in both knowledge and form passes from one
generation to another through a learning and experience
connection. However, by a broken connection, Dee, the older
daughter, represents a misconception of heritage as material.
During Dee's visit to Mama and Maggie, the contrast of the
characters becomes a conflict because Dee misplaces the
significance of heritage in her desire for racial heritage.
Mama and Maggie symbolize the connection between generations
and the heritage that passed between them. Mama and Maggie
continue to live together in their humble home. Mama is a robust
woman who does the needed upkeep of the land,
I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working
hands. In the winter, I wear overalls during the day.
I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. I
can work outside all day, One winter I knocked a bull
calf straight in the brain with a sledge hammer and
had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. (Walker
289)
And Maggie is the daughter, "homely and ashamed of the burn scars
down her arms and legs," (Walker 288) who helps Mama by making
"the yard so clean and wavy" (Walker 288) and washes dishes "in
the kitchen over the dishpan" (Walker 293). Neither Mama nor
Maggie are 'modernly' educated persons; "I [Mama] never had an
education myself. Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles
along good-naturedly She knows she is not bright" (Walker 290).
However, by helping Mama, Maggie uses the hand-made items in her
life, experiences the life of her ancestors, and learns the
history of both, exemplified by Maggie's knowledge of the hand-
made items and the people who made them--a knowledge which Dee
does not possess.
Contrasting with Mama and Maggie, Dee seeks her heritage
without understanding the heritage itself. Unlike Mama who is
rough and man-like, and Maggie who is shy and scared, Dee is
confident, where "Hesitation is no part of her nature," (Walker
289) and beautiful:
" first glimpse of leg out of the car tells me it is
Dee. Her feet were always neat-looking, as if God had
...
Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." Literature: Reading, Reacting,Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Fort
Worth: Harcourt, 1994. 288-295.
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