Alice Walker demonstrates external conflict between family members in "Everyday Use."
             Walker illustrates the mistake by some of placing the significance of family background solely in material objects. Walker presents Mama and Maggie, the younger daughter, as an example
             that heritage passes from one generation to another through a learning experience. However, Dee, the older daughter, doesn't see heritage this way and is more materialistic. When Dee visits Mama and Maggie, the contrast of the characters becomes a conflict because Dee seems to be more into herself rather than her family and the meaning of their possessions.
             Mama and Maggie symbolize the connection between generations and the heritage that passed between them. Mama and Maggie continue to live together in their old shack of a home. Mama is a big and strong woman who does all the needed upkeep of the land.I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter, I wear overalls during the day.
             I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. I can work outside all day, One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain with a sledgehammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. (Walker 289)
             And Maggie is the daughter, "homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs," (Walker 288) who helps Mama by making "the yard so clean and wavy" (Walker 288) and washes dishes "in the kitchen over the dishpan" (Walker 293). Neither Mama nor
             Maggie is very well educated. "I never had an education myself. Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly She knows she is not bright" (Walker 290).
             However, by Maggie living with her mother she learns about the history of her family and the meaning of the handmade quilts, but Dee has not been around to understand the true meaning of these items to Mama and Maggie. Contrasting with Mama and Maggie, Dee seeks her heritage
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