Walker In Everyday Use Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Walker In Everyday Use Essay, Research Paper Lost Heritage in Alice Walker # 8217 ; s # 8220 ; Everyday Use # 8221 ; By contrasting the household characters in # 8220 ; Everyday Use, # 8221 ; Walker illustrates the error by some of puting the significance of heritage entirely in material objects. Walker nowadayss Mama and Maggie, the younger girl, as an illustration that heritage in both cognition and signifier base on ballss from one coevals to another through a acquisition and experience connexion. However, by a broken connexion, Dee, the older girl, represents a misconception of heritage as stuff. During Dee # 8217 ; s visit to Mama and Maggie, the contrast of the characters becomes a struggle because Dee misplaces the significance of heritage in her desire for racial heritage. Mama and Maggie symbolize the connexion between coevalss and the heritage that passed between them. Mama and Maggie continue to populate together in their low place. Mama is a robust adult female who does the needful care of the land, I am a big, big-boned adult female with unsmooth, man-working custodies. In the winter, I wear overalls during the twenty-four hours. I can kill and clean a pig every bit pitilessly as a adult male. I can work outside all twenty-four hours, One winter I knocked a bull calf heterosexual in the encephalon with a sleigh cock and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. ( Walker 289 ) And Maggie is the girl, # 8220 ; homely and ashamed of the burn cicatrixs down her weaponries and legs, # 8221 ; ( Walker 288 ) who helps Mama by doing # 8220 ; the pace so clean and wavy # 8221 ; ( Walker 288 ) and washes dishes # 8220 ; in the kitchen over the dishpan # 8221 ; ( Walker 293 ) . Neither Mama nor Maggie are # 8216 ; modernly # 8217 ; educated individuals ; # 8220 ; I [ Mama ] neer had an instruction myself. Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly She knows she is non bright # 8221 ; ( Walker 290 ) . However, by assisting Mama, Maggie uses the hand-made points in her life, experiences the life of her ascendants, and learns the history of both, exemplified by Maggie # 8217 ; s cognition of the hand- made points and the people who made them # 8211 ; a cognition which Dee does non possess. Contrasting with Mama and Maggie, Dee seeks her heritage without understanding the heritage itself. Unlike Mama who is unsmooth and man-like, and Maggie who is diffident and frightened, Dee is confident, where # 8220 ; Hesitation is no portion of her nature, # 8221 ; ( Walker 289 ) and beautiful: # 8221 ; first glance of leg out of the auto tells me it is Dee. Her pess were ever neat-looking, as if God had shaped Thursday em Dee following. A frock down to the land Earrings gold, excessively ( Walker 291 ) Besides, Dee has a # 8216 ; modern # 8217 ; instruction, holding been sent # 8220 ; to a school in Augusta # 8221 ; ( Walker 290 ) . Dee attempts to link with her racial heritage by taking # 8220 ; image after image of me sitting at that place in forepart of the house with Maggie She neer takes a shooting without doing certain the house is included # 8221 ; ( Walker 291 ) . Dee takes an another name without understanding her original name ; neither does Dee seek to larn. Besides, Dee takes some of the hand-made points of her female parent # 8217 ; s such as the churn top which she will utilize # 8220 ; as a centrepiece for the bay tabular array # 8221 ; ( Walker 293 ) . Dee associates the points with her heritage now, but thought nil of them in her young person as when the first house burnt down. Dee # 8217 ; s pursuit of her heritage is external, wishing to hold these assorted points in order to expose them in her place. Dee wants the points because she perceives each to hold value, as shown in the duologue between Dee and Mama about the comforters after dinner. Dee # 8217 ; s valuing of the quilt struggles with Mama # 8217 ; s perceptual experience of the comforters. Dee considers the comforter priceless because the comforter is hand-stitched, non machined, by stating, # 8220 ; There are all pieces of frocks Grandma used to have on. She did all this sewing by manus. Imagine! # 8221 ; ( Walker 294 ) . Dee plans to expose the comforters or # 8220 ; Hang them, # 8221 ; ( Walker 294 ) unlike Maggie who may # 8220 ; put them to everyday use # 8221 ; ( Walker 294 ) . However, Mama # 8220 ; promised to give them comforters to Maggie, for when she marries # 8221 ; ( Walker 294 ) . Mama knows there exists a connexion of heritage in Maggie ; Mama knows that # 8220 ; It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught [ Maggie ] how to quilt # 8221 ; ( Walker 294 ) . Because of Maggie # 8217 ; s connexion, Mama takes the comforters from Dee who # 8220 ; held the comforters firmly in her weaponries, stroking them seizing them closely to her bosom # 8221 ; ( Walker 294 ) like sacred graven images, and so gives them to Maggie. After Mama gives Maggie the comforters, Dee says, # 8220 ; You merely Don # 8217 ; t understand Your heritage # 8221 ; ( Walker 295 ) . Dee believes heritage to be the comforter on the wall or the churn in the bay. Dee knows the points are hand-made but non the cognition and history behind the points. Yet, Mama does cognize the cognition and history and knows that Maggie does excessively. Ironically, Dee criticizes Mama for non understanding heritage when, in fact, Dee fails to truly understand heritage. Dee erroneously topographic points heritage entirely in what she owns, non what she knows.