Each person's heritage is important. It tells us where we come from, what our roots are, and why we are the way we are today. Some of us are more aware of our ancestry than are others and there are several ways to appreciate it. In "Everyday Use", by Alice Walker, there is a distinction between these ways. One is an intellectual appreciation and the other is actually living it. Mama and Maggie are existing in an unchanged rural life while Dee can only grasp the cerebral side.
             Mama does not even realize that she is what her heritage has told her to become. There has been no real change from the past for her; she just lives what she was told to live by her predecessors. Mama doesn't know enough to advance herself, admitting that she "never had an education . . . After second grade the school was closed down" (45). Even if she had gotten a proper education, she still is choosing to do what she is best at doing: "I was always better at a man's job" (45). Although Mama is not aware of it, she is a living artifact of her heritage.
             Maggie is not aware of much in her life. Even Mama knows that Maggie doesn't have the best abilities: "She stumbles along good-naturedly but can't see well. She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by" (45). Maggie probably could not have an intellectual appreciation of her heritage even if she desired one because of her lack of brightness. However, Maggie does have the knowledge of how to do the things in her heritage, passing along traditions to whatever children she may have with John Thomas.
             Dee is quite different from her mother and sister. Dee went to college and learned all the things that modern society told her to learn, which in all probability included black history. This gave her an awareness of where she came from and made her value it much more. Although she despised the ...