Every day use

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Differing Views on Honoring One 's Cultural Heritage in Alice Walker 's Everyday Use

People value their heritage in various ways . Even those who share the same intention of preserving the rich culture of their social group clash as to how to achieve the same goal . Alice Walker 's Everyday Use explores the question through the characters of two different sisters The contrast between them presents a dilemma for their mother and , in a more meaningful reading of the text , a conflict to the readers

regarding how African-Americans should best preserve and honor their cultural heritage

The story is told through the point of view of Mrs . Johnson , the mother of the sisters Dee and Maggie . She grew up in poverty , as most of her people , during the early years of the emancipation of African-Americans She describes herself as a large , big-boned woman with rough , man working hands (Walker 320 ' One winter , she knocked a bull calf straight in the brain (Walker 320 ' She could not sing although she knows her church hymns like everyone else . She is uneducated having finished only second grade . She grew up as a farm woman . She lived and survived a hard life . Yet , for all her life , Mrs . Johnson has been proud of her strength , both in body and spirit . She is equally proud of her cultural heritage and does not see nor understand the need to flaunt it . Maggie is the timid daughter . She is homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arm and legs (Walker 319 ' She envies her sister and thinks Dee held life always in the palm of one hand (Walker 319 She walks like a lame animal .chin on chest , eyes on ground , feet in shuffle (Walker 320 ' She went to school but she is not bright and adventurous like her sister . She has her future all planned out . Like most others , she will marry a childhood friend , live in a small house and most probably , live under the same economic standards as her parents had . Soon she will become her mother . Having stayed behind and not been given the opportunity to be educated like her sister , her mother 's influence has rubbed off on her and she would grow old to become her mother , think like her and share her views on life

Dee , her sister , is her opposite . Dee hated their old house and Mrs Johnson believes she was even happy when it burned . She is the educated African-American , the first generation who would grow up different from her parents and ancestors . She is confident and wanted nice things (Walker 321 ' in life . She is the product and realization of the emancipation : young African-Americans who would strive to be the equals of whites in terms of opportunities , material possessions , plans and dreams . Dee 's friends and other girls worshipped Dee and her personality and probably , all wanted to be like her . Yet to her mother , Dee is strange and different . Mrs...