Understanding Essay, Research Paper

Understanding Heritage: A Character Analysis from Everyday Use

In the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, a misunderstanding about a family s heritage occurs. The family consists of Mama, Maggie, and Dee. Mama is one of the main characters and she also narrates the story. She is described to be a, large big-boned woman with rough, man working hand (Walker 61). From this you can picture a very strong willed woman, who has work her entire life to have what she has. Maggie, the youngest daughter, is a quite shy girl. She became this way after a house fire that burned her severely. She is described as having her, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle (62). Dee, on the other hand, is very different from her mother and sister. A closer look at Dee reveals why.

As a child Dee acted as though she was better than anyone in her family. She was impatient, ungrateful, and was ashamed of her family because of their social status. When the family s first house burned down, and Maggie was so badly scared on the outside and in, there was some suspicion that she started the fire because she hated the house so much. No one accused her, but the suspicion was there.

In the story, Dee comes home for a visit, which is very rare. When she arrives, she seems to be the same, Dee but she is not. She begins taking pictures of her family and their house, but she never gets in them. It seems like she is distancing herself from them so when she goes back she can show her friends of a quite, country-living family

and not pictures of her family. Dee s mother the community church raised money to send Dee to a school in Augusta. While in school she began exploring her African roots. After she arrived and introduced Asalamalakim, a short stocky fellow with hair to his navel as the story describes him, Mama calls Dee by her name and she says, Not Dee, Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo! Dee changed her name because she couldn t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppressed me (64). She doesn t understand that she was named after her Aunt Dicie and her name came from her grandma.

While Dee is visiting, she begins rummaging through everything looking for things to take back with her. She eyes a butter dish that was whittled by her uncle. She asks for it and Mama gives it to her, but she says, I can use the churn top as a center piece for the alcove table (65). Mama had been using the churn top with the churn to make butter but Dee wanted it for a decoration piece. There are some quilts, Dee also eyes that were hand made by her mother and Aunt Dicie. The quilts are composed of old pieces of dresses worn by her grandmother, and there was even a piece of her Great Grandpa Ezera s Civil War uniform stitch on one of them. Mama had offered them to her before, but she didn t want them. Now, Mama had promised the quilts to Maggie. When Mama tells Dee, she says, Maggie can t appreciate these quilts! She d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use. Mama asks Dee what she plans on doing with them and she replies, Hang them (66). When Mama saw Maggie standing in the doorway looking sad she snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie. As Dee is walking away, she tells her mother she doesn t understand her heritage, but in

reality she is the one who doesn t understand her heritage, which is ironic. She doesn t understand that her family s heritage should come before her culture. She confuses heritage with culture. Dee leaves her family not long after. She probably won t be back for a while either.