Heritage vs. Artifice in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"

Introduction: Culture as Lived Experience

In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," Dee is searching for cultural authenticity, but in her search she latches onto material possessions — the relics of her family's heritage — believing these objects represent the identity she is after. However, Dee's search is frustrated by her own superficial understanding of what culture truly is: she believes it is a construct that can be concocted overnight, or reclaimed by way of artifice. The reality is that, as the mother demonstrates, culture comes from the heart and its attachment to one's true heritage — which is why Maggie is awarded the quilt coveted by Dee. Maggie has the heart to love it because it comes from her family, and she has the sense to make use of it; Dee wants it only because she believes it represents her ancestral Blackness — beyond that, it means nothing to her.

The mother's role in awarding the quilt to the most deserving daughter reinforces the story's central idea: real culture is lived, whereas fake or superficial culture is merely talked about. Maggie has the real culture of the family; she is genuinely fond of her heritage. Dee is simply posing, attempting to construct a hyper-heritage that extends beyond her immediate family history all the way back to a continent she does not truly know.

Dee's Name Change and the Illusion of African Identity

Walker confirms Dee as a poser when she reveals that Dee's given name comes from a long line of women in the family — she is named after her aunt, who was named for their grandmother, and so on. Yet for Dee, who has learned at college how white culture has oppressed her people, the rejection of her given name is part and parcel of what she is doing: rejecting everything that previously defined her and setting about constructing an authentic African identity, or so she thinks. As Helga Hoel points out, Dee's "African name" — Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo — is inauthentic. It may sound as though it originates in Africa, but it has no more genuine connection to that continent, its people, and their history than the local store down the street. Her new self-applied, self-constructed name only serves to reflect Dee's socio-political rejection of white culture and her white oppressors. It is not a legitimate claim to Blackness, heritage, or true culture, as Dee would like to believe.

Heritage Objects and Their True Meaning

Dee misses the real meaning of heritage and culture when she arrives at the Johnson homestead fresh from college. The objects in the home — such as the quilt and the butter churn — have an everyday, practical use in addition to being items that have been in the family's possession for generations. They tell something of the story of the Johnson family. Dee sees them only as relics or artifacts of Black culture. For Maggie and Mama, however, they represent real memories, and they respect these objects for that reason. Maggie learned to quilt from her grandmother, as Walker points out, and the butter churn was something their uncle carved with his own two hands — that is why these items matter to Maggie and Mama. To Dee, they are like antiques that would look good in her dorm because they symbolize something old and rural, not because they remind her of loved ones she has lost.

Works Cited

Baker, Houston A., and Charlotte Pierce-Baker. "Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'." The Southern Review, vol. 21, no. 3 (1985): 706.

Hoel, Helga. "Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'." American Studies in Scandinavia, vol. 31, no. 1 (1999): 34–42.

Tuten, Nancy. "Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'." The Explicator, vol. 51, no. 2 (1993): 125–128.

Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." nlsd.k12.oh.us.