Everyday Use Essay -- Literary Analysis, Alice Walker

The characters in perfunctory Use by Alice Walker serve as a comparison between how family inheritance and traditions are viewed. Walker illustrates that heritage is represented not by the possession of items or how they look, but taint how they are used, how ones attitude is, and how they go about(predicate) a daily behavior room. Every memory or tradition in Every sidereal day Use strengthens the separation in the relationship between Dee and her mother, the narrator, which involves divergent views on their family heritage.Mrs. Johnson, the mother, is described as, a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands (6). She tells some of her capabilities including, I can kill and clean a hog as pitilessly as a man. . .I can work outside all day, breach ice to get water for washing I can course pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes afterward it go fars steaming from the hog (6). This description informs readers that Mrs. Johnson has learned all the ways and tra ditions of her ancestors and knows how to brave from day to day. She and Maggies lives in the small home represent a simple, unsophisticated way of life. Dee, on the other hand is described as, light-skinned, with nicer sensory hair and a fuller figure who wanted nice things and had a style of her own (7). The clothes Dee wears and the phrases she uses to greet her mother and sister show that she has no real understanding of her background and where she comes from. This shows Dee to be materialistic, complex, and lead a life where heritage is looked upon as a trend and not for what it really represents.Although incomplete Maggie nor Mrs. Johnson are very well educated they show an understanding of where they come from. Mrs. Johnson and the community raised money to send Dee to a school... ...cause she had been savin em for long enough with nobody using em (12). After Dee gets the evince she walks out of the house and tells her mother You just dont understand. . .Your heritage. . . (13). Dee is in fact the one who does not understand. Dee thinks of heritage to be as open as hanging the quilt on her wall or using the churn as a decoration for her table. Her mother, on the other hand, knows about traditions and heritage. Using the quilts would put the memories of their ancestors to everyday use. Everyday Use shows readers that heritage and finale is not speaking in a foreign language, wearing different clothes, or the changing of ones name. Ones heritage and culture is taught and learned through generations, not just picked up. Walker illustrates that a person who truly has heritage and culture makes use of it every day of their life.