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Lost Heritage In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" - College Papers

Lost Heritage In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"



By contrasting the family characters in "Everyday Use," Walker illustrates
the mistake by some of placing the significance of heritage solely in material
objects. Walker presents Mama and Maggie, the younger daughter, as an example
that heritage in both knowledge and form passes from one generation to another
through a learning and experience connection. However, by a broken connection,
Dee, the older daughter, represents a misconception of heritage as material.
During Dee's visit to Mama and Maggie, the contrast of the characters becomes a
conflict because Dee misplaces the significance of heritage in her desire for
racial heritage.

Mama and Maggie symbolize the connection between ...

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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 are 'modernly' educated persons; "I [Mama] 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 helping Mama,
Maggie uses the hand-made items in her life, experiences the life of her
ancestors, and learns the history of both, exemplified by Maggie's knowledge of
the hand-made items and the people who made them--a knowledge which Dee does
not possess.

Contrasting with Mama and Maggie, Dee seeks her heritage without
understanding the heritage itself. Unlike Mama who is rough and man-like, and
Maggie who is shy and scared, Dee is confident, ...

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Lost Heritage In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use". (2005, June 19). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lost-Heritage-Alice-Walkers-Everyday-Use/28737
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"Lost Heritage In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"." Essayworld.com. June 19, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lost-Heritage-Alice-Walkers-Everyday-Use/28737.
"Lost Heritage In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"." Essayworld.com. June 19, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lost-Heritage-Alice-Walkers-Everyday-Use/28737.
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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 6/19/2005 01:17:13 PM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Free Paper
Words: 821
Pages: 3

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