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

Dee also changes her name without even understanding her original name; neither does Dee try to learn. Also, Dee takes some of the hand-made items of her mother's such as the churn top which she will use "as a centerpiece for the alcove table" (Walker 293). Dee associates the items with her heritage now, but thought nothing of them in her youth as when the first house burnt down. Dee wants the items because she thinks that each of them has value.

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

fails to really understand heritage. Dee mistakenly places heritage in what she owns, not what she knows.

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Approximate Word count = 714
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)