Everyday Use

Introduction

Everyday use is a short story written by Alice Walker. She is someone who identifies the different ideologies and ideas which people have about the varieties of their heritage, culture, ancestry and identities. In the story she has tried to highlight the importance and the true meaning of culture. This story is about three women name Mama, Maggie and Dee, all of them belonging to the same household but each of them holding individual philosophies and qualities of life.

Discussion

The story shows Mama to be a country woman, innocent and simple and an individual who values the heritage and culture for its value and the personal importance of living life as well as doing the simpler things. For her, the biggest joy in her life would be if her daughter Dee recognizes her efforts and labors that she painstakingly underwent to ensure that her daughter grows up to be an upstanding and confident young woman. She does not approve of the materialistic connection which Dee has for her heritage.

Maggie is shown to be the passive and shy daughter who resembles Mama by her wish for living life in a simple manner while at the same time, honoring and remembering the importance and meaning of her heritage.

Dee is the most modern, confident and materialistic of the two sisters. She values a modern lifestyle which dictates that heritage and culture are only to their importance as artistic artifacts.

Even though the three of them are family, as mentioned before they have extremely different and even opposing viewpoints of life (userpages, 2012).

Mama is a woman is happy and proud of what she has accomplished in life as well as what's been given to her, in spite of the fact that she does not have much to show that has a lot of materialistic value. While on the flip side of the coin, Dee, the child who she and the community helped pitch in to send to college thinks completely opposite. From the beginning she is seen to be a confident girl with strong personality who with her said college experience grows into a woman who knows what she wants and that she can accomplish anything. Mama's recollection of her children's childhood shows that Dee always wished for 'nice things' (Walker & Barbara, 1994). as well as her always getting her desires. The story further shows this in practice when Dee after coming home to visit, insists to take the churn, dasher and lastly the old quilts. She does not budge from her stance even when she learns that her mother had already promised then to his other sister i.e. Maggie. On the other hand Maggie is observed to be content with her lot of life and does not mind living in a world without education, finding her happiness through her heart and not thorough worldly possessions.

This difference in their outlook of life also touches their heritage views. Mama and Maggie are of the opinion that heritage is also encompasses the traditions ...