False Heritage
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Children born and raised in the United States often are unaware of the cultures and traditions that make their heritage unique and lasting, choosing instead to follow the ever changing pop culture of America. In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker explores the growing gaps between youth and the customs of their ancestors. Through the contrasting images of Maggie, her mother, and Dee, Walker shows a deep understanding and respect of the past and a fleeting interest in a trend.
Dee is portrayed as a shallow girl who makes her family feel “trapped and ignorant” (Walker, 100). Dee is a stubborn, independent girl who “wanted nice things” (100), and felt anger towards the poor conditions that left her unable to obtain them. When she is old enough she leaves her home for places more stylish than what it can offer. She comes back with a supposed new found love for her heritage, but she does not honor it. She asks her mother for the butter churn dash and top, but they will not be used for what they were created for. Instead, they will be used as a “centerpiece for the alcove table” (104) and she will “find something artistic to do with the dasher” (104). The pieces of the past are no long tools used to make life easier, but art pieces to make a home look trendy. When she claims the two quilts made by two generations of women in her family, and containing cloth from three, she holds them so tightly that even as her mother approaches them Dee “[moves] back just enough so that [she] couldnt reach them” (Walker, 105). She claims she will honor them as no other will, but only a few years back she claimed that she didnt want them because they were “out of style” (105). Dee doesnt want the quilts or even the butter churn for their historical and familial significance, but instead because they will make her into the trendy person she always wanted to be.
Dee is an interesting character in such that she tends to hold power over the family through her education. She would read to her mother and sister, not because she cared for them, but to burn them “with a lot of knowledge” (100) while they were “trapped” (100) beneath her words. She uses the fact that she has a better education to show them that, in her eyes, they are backwards people, who are a constant embarrassment to her. Despite the fact that Dee has an amazing scholastic education, she has absolutely no knowledge of her heritage. She shows up at the house she would “never bring her friends” (101) to, and starts demanding things to prove her heritage without knowing what that is. Even her name isnt good enough for her, instead she changes it to Wangero, a name she believes is her heritage, but her familys name isnt Wangero. She still doesnt understand her roots, nor does she care to. She just wants to assume the appearance of a racially aware person, but she cant even remember who she was named after or who created all the things in her house. The quilts and butter churns hold no sentimental value for her.
Maggie is a shy, quiet girl, who fears her sisters dominance in the family. When Dee first comes out of the car she groans “like when you see the wriggling end of a snake in front of your foot on the road” (102). The power that Dee wields over the family causes Maggie to feel the same fear towards her as she would a snake. Maggie, however, is a living embodiment of the past.