Everyday Use By Alice Walker
A Mothers Misconception
People incorporate tradition, culture, and heritage into their everyday lifestyle. Some accept the heritage they are born into proudly, while others do not even mention their heritage. Alice Walker the author of the short story “ Everyday Use” believes people should honor their own heritage. Alice Walker has very many similarities with the family in the story “Everyday Use”. She was born in Eatonton, Georgia, which is in the South, and the story setting is also in the South. Her parents were sharecroppers, like Mama and Maggie, who are waiting for Dee to arrive home for a visit after a long absence. Dee finally arrives, but she does not come alone and she is accompanied by a man name Assalamulaikum . When she arrives she immediately takes picture of the house like a tourist, yet she has came to her birth place. During her visit she also comments on how her sister Maggie is not very bright ,and implies she is the smart one . Mama denies Dee the family quilts, because she believes Maggie better understands the value of the heritage stitched into the quilts. Although Mama makes Dee appear to be simply selfish, arrogant and ashamed of her own heritage, however, Dee is a woman who respects her own heritage and refuses to allow heritage from holding her back in life.
Mamas description of Dee’s childhood makes her seem like a selfish and arrogant girl . In the third paragraph mama explains how Dee has a standard on how her mother should be. Dee prefers her mother to be “a hundred pounds lighter, [her] skin like an uncooked barely pancake.” (104). Dee’s mother feels like her beauty is not near her daughters standards. Although Dee’s behavior indicates her arrogance, she is actually a fashionable girl with “a style of her own, and [knows] what style [is]” (105), who would also like her mother to be fashionable. Mama also makes Dee seem arrogant when she comments on how “[Dee] would always look anyone in the eye.”(104). Mama is confusing...
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