Heritage is about understanding one's background and valuing the significance of it. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," Mrs. Johnson, or Mama, idolizes her daughter Dee but realizes the only reason she wants the items of their family's past is for selfish reasons only. Dee wants items like the quilt that her grandmother made, for the superficial value and impression they will make on her friends (Cowart 3). Mama understands that her other daughter Maggie knows more about her heritage and the true meaning of the quilts, which is the same belief Mama holds about their shared heritage. Dee wants the items to show everyone how she has escaped and even transcended from a poor life. However, Maggie has always connected with her ancestry because she has learned the true meaning and value of what they mean and what the generations before her contributed. The everyday, household objects in the story which have been handed down, like the quilts, and even Walker's female characters represent various facets of the African American culture's changing understanding of race, heritage, and identity.
Walker's character of Dee is actually a type of symbol in this story because she represents the black race struggling to find a new identity (White 2). Dee wants the quilts because, to her, they represent her success or transcendence instead of her heritage. These quilts she wants contain scraps of dresses worn by the grandmother and even the great-grandmother, as well as a piece of the uniform worn by the great-grandfather who served in the Union Army in the War Between the States (Cowart 2). Mrs. Johnson's daughter fails to see the true meaning sewed into this quilt. Dee has never tried to learn how to quilt to understand the time which must be devoted and the handiwork of the craft; she simply wants the quilt because it is now in fashion to display it on her wall. Mama even asked Dee years before if she wanted the quilts, and she said no because they were not "in" at the time. Dee wants to hang them up and use them as a way to show that she has escaped the ghetto (Korenman 2). Mrs. Johnson doesn't see the quilts in that sort of light; she perceives these quilts and other items such as the churn lid and the dasher as intended for 'everyday use.' Dee wants to preserve these objects and show to all. However, her other daughter, Maggie, was going to use the quilts like Mama had always wanted them to be used, just as the generations have before her (Cowart 7).
Therefore, Mrs. Johnson's other daughter, Maggie, represents the opposite side of the different spectrums of the African American race (White 3). When Mrs. Johnson realizes that Maggie is more deserving of the possessions because she inherently understands not only the objects' value but the value of what they represent, it becomes the crisis of the short story. Mrs. Johnson finally stands up to her daughter Dee, something which she could never do before. Walker shows that Mama's moment of success is achieved because she is able to balance between two types of her heritage represented by her very different daughters (Farrell 6). At the end Mama combines Maggie's respect for tradition with Dee's pride and refusal to back down, a combination Walker seems to feel is necessary if true social change is to come about (Farrell 7).Thus, the daughters themselves are human symbols of the changing times and beliefs of ethnic and cultural change. She puts a stop to Dee domineering her and Maggie at this moment, which results in Dee knowing she can't always gets what she wants. Mrs. Johnson's understanding of her race and background are vital to valuing it and truly knowing the purpose of the objects she owns. Her decision ultimately represents how she embraces tradition and family history.
On the other hand, Dee has always tried to escape from not only her heritage but her race. This is evidenced in her name change from Dee to Wangero. "I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me." Alice Walker's dialogue for Dee shows that she is turning her back on her black female ancestors. Dee has always taken belongings from her mother and turned them in to a contemporary or political statement of fashion. This, in a sense, is the rising action in the story. Dee has become involved with the movement of the Cultural Nationalism, whose major spokesman was the black writer Imamu Baraka (Hoel 1). This movement chiefly promoted the development of black culture and ethnic art as means to liberate blacks. Traditional black culture was often vulgarized (Hoel 1).
Therefore, Dee as advocate of this movement, takes significant items from the household but only to use them to be in style like she wants to do now with the quilts. When Dee arrives home, for example, she takes snap shots of her sister and mother and of the house so that she can show everyone what her immediate family looks like. She tells Mama that she wants the quilts made by her ancestors, so that they could be framed for all to see. That is the same reason she wants the butter churn for a center piece for her table. Dee's reasoning for owning the quilts is ultimately selfish. She wants them as in a way to show that her race had no effect on her, that she is better than her ancestors (Korenman 2).
Then there is Maggie who wants the quilts because she was close to the grandmother and aunt who made them and who taught her the art of quilting. Maggie's reasoning for wanting to the quilts is unselfish and for all the traditionally acceptable reasons. She knows that purpose and hard work has gone into the making of quilts (Korenman 2). Mama even mentions that Maggie is scarred from their old house that burned down and perhaps she has them because she was trying to save the quilts in the fire (Whitsitt 11). Maggie knows the work that was put into the quilts and honored that so much that she would stay in a burning home just to rescue them. Even these visible scars on Maggie's skin could be symbolic. They are everyday reminders of how she has been scarred and burned by life. However, knowing the purpose of why Dee wants the quilts, she still tells Mama to give them to her. Maggie knows she has memories of them in her head, and that she doesn't need quilts to remind them of her past (Whitsitt 14). Maggie has lived life like the generations in the past. She has helped her mother with gardening and cleaning. Dee has never done any of that to understand where she has come from and how it feels. Dee has lived a very nontraditional life compared to the rest of her family; she never really lived in the ghetto because she was always getting away from it somehow. Maggie has lived it and knows more stories behind the quilts than Dee will ever know or even more than she cares to know. Maggie knows that the value lies in the knowledge of quilting and not by just earning quilts made by her grandmother and aunt (Whitsitt 14). Maggie's knowledge of quilting links her to the generations before her. She knows how much time and hard work were put into the quilts her grandmother and aunt made because she sat right beside them and helped them. Maggie's idea of heritage is about really knowing the true meaning of what the ancestors have endured and accomplished. The quilt represents all of this. The quilts represent the people from the past and the importance of that heritage (White 5).
Maggie and Mama's understanding of race is quite similar, but it has its differences in ways. Dee, however, is the complete opposite out of all of them. Dee views the items they possess of their ancestry as a way as reminding herself and others that she has escaped from the ghetto. Maggie wants the quilts because she knows the true purpose of the items and how they were used, and Dee wants to put them up for show. This shows how superficial she is because if the quilts were truly important to her, she would value the heritage and not reject it by changing her name and condescending to her family (White 2). Mama realizes at the end that Maggie has always been at her side and learning how to quilt, cook, and clean. While Dee has always been into the latest things and never given a thought of her heritage until it came back into 'style'. All three look at their heritage differently, two of them value the meaning in it in varying ways and one simply does not.
The quilts themselves symbolize the diverse views these women of the same race hold about life and their identity. "Walker uses the quilts to symbolize a bond between women" (White 1). It is as if these differing perspectives across this one family and across the generations are "pieced" together. The quilt and Mama's daughters represent a search for understanding the "concept of heritage as it applies to African-Americans" (White 1). This allows Walker's central theme to be developed. "Responsibility for defining African-American heritage should not be left to the Black Power movement…they must take ownership of their entire heritage, including the painful, unpleasant parts" (White 4). So the quilt becomes a symbol for all blacks' struggle to "reconcile" history with "reform."
Through the characters of Dee, Maggie, and Mama, Walker develops insightful and diverse ideas held about race, heritage and identity. All of these concepts are woven into the quilt, which is representative of the past, the beliefs of the present generation, and the changing outlook of a society during this time period. The characters and the quilt all symbolize the fragments of the perspectives coming together, through much struggle and strife, to form a new consciousness for each individual about heritage and what really matters in life.
