Everyday Use by Alice Walker

“Everyday Use” opens as the narrator and her youngest daughter, Maggie, await a visit from the older daughter, Dee, and a man who may be her husband—her mother is not sure whe

. . .
” This is especially ironic that Dee wants these quilts now for their artistic value since the narrator had offered them to Dee earlier when she had left to head off to college. Dee understands the heritage of people she doesn’t know.

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**Bibliography**

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Works Cited

Walker, Alice.

When Dee arrives, she tells her mother and Maggie that they do not understand their own “heritage,” because they plan to put “priceless” heirloom quilts to “everyday use. Seemingly, Dee has given herself a new name, “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. To be fully appreciated and claimed, it must reside in the heart. ”(328) She has taken this name, she says, in order to express solidarity with her African ancestors and to reject what she calls the oppression implied by the taking on of American names by black slaves. Indeed, her mother imagines being reunited with her on a television show such as “This Is Your Life,” where the celebrity guest is confronted with her humble origins.

One’s heritage allows the past history of one’s people to affect one on a personal level. To Wangero, she sees denying her original name, Dee, as a way of reclaiming her ancestral heritage while her mother sees it as merely denying her own family history. To her mother, however, the name “Dee” is symbolic of family unity; after all, she is able trace it back to the time of the Civil War.

The issue of Dee’s name is fairly exemplary of this confusion.

Common topics in this essay:
Walker's Everyday, Civil War, Alice Walker, Leewanika Kemanjo328, College Publishers, Seemingly Dee, name dee, history ones, common heritage,

Approximate Word count = 534
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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