Heritage and Identity in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"

Heritage as Identity: Dee Versus Maggie and Mama

Family tradition and heritage mean different things to the main characters in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker. For Dee (Wangero), heritage is an intellectual exercise — something to be proud of and displayed to demonstrate one's importance. For Maggie and Mama, however, heritage is something that has always been part of the family in a living, intimate way.

Dee's name, for instance, was given to her by her aunt, who was herself named after their grandmother, who was named after hers — a generational name that should have carried traditional significance. Mama points this out, drawing on her actual knowledge of the family's history. But Dee is not interested in that kind of heritage. She wants to trumpet her African heritage, and so she changes her name to signify that she has no relation to the slave culture she believes oppressed her people and gave them the name "Dee" in the first place. Dee's sense of heritage is therefore politicized and polemical — ideological rather than practical, familial, or familiar.

Her attitude is rooted in both pride and a kind of righteous indignation, yet it is also innocent in its own way, because it is well-meaning despite the ignorance and pride that foster it. Significantly, it makes Maggie smile. Maggie appreciates her heritage — her memory of her grandmother, for instance — in a way that Dee cannot. In this sense, Maggie is the more emotionally mature of the two sisters.

The Symbolism of Objects in the Johnson Home

The objects at the center of the story — the butter churn and the quilts — tell us a great deal about the Johnson family. They tell us that family is important, that there is a bond between the generations, and that there exists a deep respect and love for the memory of those who came before. The grandmother and aunt taught Maggie how to quilt; the butter churn was carved by an uncle. These objects are important not only because they prompt memories of loved ones now gone, but also because they were physically connected to those people — they belonged to them and are therefore simply, powerfully special. Through the object, a connection of kinship is preserved. This is deeply appreciated by Mama and Maggie, but only superficially by Dee.

Dee's Ideological Approach to Heritage

Dee's appreciation for her heritage is genuine in its own way — after all, she does want to display it. But she does not understand it as Maggie and Mama do. For Dee, heritage is an emblem, a signpost declaring that her people lived and suffered. It is a position from which she can hurl a defiant fist against the powers that be. In embracing this stance, she is in effect objectifying herself through an ideological heritage rather than a personal one.

Her immediate family heritage is useful to her only insofar as it can be put on display. In fact, she partly renounces that heritage by changing her name and insisting that the quilts must not be used but hung — preserved in the way a museum might preserve an artifact. In doing so, she fails to realize that she would also be taking them from her family, who would likely use them and pass them on to the next generation, which is precisely how living tradition works. As Alice Walker constructs the story, use is not destruction — it is continuation.

Conclusion: Heritage as Guide and Way of Life

Heritage is there to guide, but some — like Dee — look beyond it because they want to travel beyond it, while others — like Maggie and Mama — look to it because they want to live within the light of it. Neither approach is without value, but Walker's story makes clear that a heritage kept only for display, divorced from daily life and human connection, loses the very essence it claims to honor.

Works Cited

Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use."