Love's Many Admires

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate December 2001

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Heritage and Everyday Life Alice Walker's short story, "Everyday Use," provides the reader with a vision of what heritage really means, and how so many people have forgotten it. Her theme is to remind Dee that her heritage is not a material item or changing her name, but it is in her character and everyday life.

Dee is a spoiled woman. She has always gotten what she has wanted. No one could tell Dee "no"(65). She takes everything in life for granted and does not have any respect for her mother or her sister Maggie. She used to treat her mother and sister like they were idiots; like they could not understand anything she ever said or read to them (66). Dee does not care to even develop a relationship with her mother or sister, and because of this Dee is very cold-hearted and self-absorbed. She intimidates her own flesh and blood.

Maggie dislikes her, but at the same time she admires her (65). Dee asks her mother for quilts that are apart of the family heritage. She exclaims that she will put them to good use by hanging them and she mocks Maggie for putting them to "everyday use (70)." Her saying this shows that she is nothing but a materialistic woman. She doesn't care about all the hard work and sweat that has gone into those quilts. Also, the fact that her mother told her that they were for Maggie as a wedding present, Dee should have never asked again for them. That shows how inconsiderate she is towards her own sister (70). In Dee's desperate attempt to forget where she came from she has hurt and insulted the most vital people in her life.

Mama is a caring and light-hearted woman. She views life...