Everyday Use

“Growing up in Different Eras of time

and disparities between the quality of education

affect peoples’ perception of heritage.”

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker was an inspiring story of family and heritage. Simplicity against

complexity. The old ways and the new ways. It was about people fighting for change and other people

who were content with the way things were. The story takes place in the 60’s or 70’s and is written in

the first person from the mother’s perspective. She has two daughters Dee and Maggie who are

complete opposites. Maggie is a shy, not so smart black woman who is scarred from a fire that the

family went through when their house burned down. She is always at Mama’s side and has pretty much

the same educational background and understanding of heritage that Mama has. Maggie has always

lived under Dee’s shadow. Mama notes, “ Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will

stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burned scars down her arms and legs, eyeing

her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one

hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her.”(Walker 157). Dee usually got

everything she wanted and it was probably at Maggie’s expense. Mama and Maggie’s understanding of

heritage differs from Dee’s. To them heritage is living the way their living. Memories of past relatives

and the passing on of customs and items from generation to generation. Heritage is working on the

farm and living simple lives not caring to complicate themselves. Just believing in the Lord Jesus and

appreciating what has been given. Heritage is the way they speak. The black English that has evolved

into a full sub language that has added another dimension to the English language which enables us to

better express ourselves through another means of rhetoric and grammar and has birthed many

beautiful black literary scholars. Dee is an attractive, outgoing, educated, strong minded black woman

who is tired of being oppressed by white society and discovers her African roots, knowledge of self and

takes great pride in it. It seems that she looks down on or pities her mother and sister because they are

simple country folk who are uneducated and seem content with the way their lives are. The different

perceptions of heritage between Mama and Dee are due to the different eras of time they grew up in

and the disparities of the quality of education between them.

Mama or Mrs. Johnson grew up in the 1920’s and was forced to stop going to school when she was in

the second grade because the school was closed down. Alice Walker notes that Mama says, “Don’t ask

me why: in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now.”(walker 158) This reveals that Mama

only had a second grade education and that in the 1920’s most black people did not question the

authority of white society. Mama barely knew how to read and lacked in the knowledge of the history of

her people pertaining to the Atlantic Slave Trade, the countries in Africa her ancestors came from and

the cultures and customs of these African countries. To Mama this history was unknown or irrelevant.

She takes pride in the history of her family here in America like the benches they sat on while eating

dinner. She notes, “Even the fact that we still used the benches her daddy made for the table when we

couldn’t afford to buy chairs.”(Walker 161) Mama appreciates and remembers the quilts that were

made by Grandma Dee, her sister Big Dee and herself. She honors and respects the methods or patterns

in which they were made. She notes, “One was in the Lonestar pattern the other was Walk Around the

Mountain.”(Walker161) These were items and customs that were taught and passed down from

generation to generation. They show the passing on of knowledge and heritage. The quilts also

represent different people and timelines of past events in her family history as she specifies, “In both of

them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces Grandpa

Jarrell’s paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox that was

from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War.”(Walker 161,162). Mama recognized

the genealogical value of these items and not the monetary worth or cultured complexity that attracted

Dee to them. Dee would use them as symbols of her status and use them to make herself look cultivated

as she would brag about their history to her so called higher class friends which she was too

embarrassed to bring around her family.