Everyday Use

A detailed Summary of Everyday Use


"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker has an underlying theme of heritage and tradition. This is a black family living in the early 1970's, and for them tradition and heritage is everything in the world. The oldest daughter, Dee, who has renamed herself Wangero, tells her mother and her sister, Maggie, "You just don't understand...your heritage." Wangero is upset because she wants the quilts that were made by her grandmother. In my opinion, Wangero has no idea herself what heritage means. She has gone off to college and changed all of her beliefs and ideas that she grew up with. She has become Muslim and thinks that everything Muslims do it the right way to do things. She no longer hs her won mind and her own way of thinking.


Although Maggie may put the quilts to everyday use, she truly knows of all the hard work and memories that were put into those quilts. Wangero pretends that she truly cares about the quilts and the heritage behind them by bringing up, "Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they'd be in rags, less than that." Ms. Johnson shoots back at her with, "She can always make some more, Maggie knows how to quilt." Ms. Johnson is implying that even if Wangero is good at everything, there is one thing that Maggie can do that Wangero can't, and it truly is a part of heritage and tradition: Maggie can quilt.

Ms. Johnson takes a few seconds to think through the whole thing and then "dragged her (Maggie) into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's han

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Approximate Word count = 518
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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