By simply concentrating on connecting with their African heritage many failed to understand that their parents and their ancestors who lived on the American continent in general created a culture of their own that entailed elements belonging both to the African continent and to the American one. Most of the short story is about how Dee struggles to find her personal identity by turning to cultural values. While Dee is more concerned with displaying her cultural values and preserving them, Mama and Maggie actually live through their traditions directly. They do not need to pose in individuals obsessed with their background in order to actually understand it. Their ability to preserve thinking present in their ancestors compensates for their lack of knowledge and is more important than Dee's efforts to put across pretentious attitudes. It is not necessarily that these characters are unwilling to accept their African roots, as they actually feel that it would be more important for them to focus on ideas that can actually reflect positively on them.

The quilts play a particularly important role in the story, taking into account that they contain parts of dresses belonging to Dee's predecessors and that they even hold a piece of the uniform her great-grandfather wore during the Civil War. "The visitor rightly recognizes the quilts as part of her fragile heritage, but she fails to see the extent to which she herself has traduced that heritage." (Cowart)

All things considered, Walker puts across a story meant to influence readers to concentrate on getting a more complex understanding of their background in order to be able to truly appreciate their heritage. Dee's behavior is certainly praiseworthy, but it is actually sad that she fails to comprehend the complete nature of her background.

Annotated Bibliography:

Cowart, David, "Heritage and Deracination in Walker's "Everyday...

33, No. 2
This journal article deals with the idea of heritage as seen from several perspectives. Although Cowart provides readers with the feeling that Dee is wrong by thinking that her mother and sister are unable to acknowledge the importance of her past, he also supports this character by highlighting conditions in the U.S. during the period and how African-Americans were vulnerable to gaining an incomplete understanding of their past.

Harris, Dean A., "MULTICULTURALISM FROM THE MARGINS: NON-DOMINANT VO," (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995)

Harris' book provides important information concerning African-Americans during the 1960s and 1970s. By focusing on how the Black Power movement was devoted to raising public awareness concerning the importance of cultural values Harris makes it possible for readers to learn more about how African-Americans understood their background. His text supports Walker's thinking by emphasizing how many individuals fail to comprehend the exact attitudes they needed to employ in order to experience best results while trying to connect with their background.

Lewis, Natalie, "The Concept of Heritage in Alice Walker's Everyday Use," (GRIN Verlag, 17.07.2002)

Lewis concentrates on how Dee fails to understand the bigger picture concerning her family and her cultural values. In her struggle to discover her personal identity this character ended up falling victim to a wave that spread across much of the African-American community at the time.

Whitsitt, Sam, "In Spite of It All: A Reading of Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," African-American Review, Vol. 34, No. 3

Whitsitt's article provides readers with the ability to understand Walker's short story better and it introduces methods to focus on particular aspects of the text without ignoring its general purpose.