Heritage
During the “Black Pride movement” in the 1960’s, in a southern three bedroom home located in the pastures. The house was made with a tin roof, windows that are holes of different shapes cut into the side of the house. During the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker you will see how the family of three clash over their family heirlooms and how the heirlooms should be preserved. This will show you how each person in the story demonstrates their own way of honoring their family history of their heritage.
The first way the story shows what family heritage means to each individual in the story by Dee, which is the eldest daughter who feels like she is better than her family. For example, people discover that the identity of the eldest child is based on her need to be recognized for being more than what she was anticipated to be. She has always been different than her family. The wait for her arrival was expressed from the beginning as something to be noteworthy. “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon.”(Walker 1) says the mother. The reader can see that it is the expectation that things need to be different for the arrival of Dee. She is not just anyone coming to see them but someone special to prepare for. Her sister Maggie seems to dread the arrival of Dee.
Although her mother feels like if she could only be better and has a dream to be physically acceptable for this daughter. She states that in her dream, “I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. My hair glistens in the hot bright lights.” (Walker 1-2) Dee has impacted this family greatly by making them question their own ability to be accepted by her. Dee has had a strong identity of importance from the time before she left the home to go to school.
Even though, Dee has been educated. The mother and Maggie have been lacking in the basic literacy skills. “I never had an...