What is the basic situation in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker?

mzpowell09,

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a genuinely funny story (“Ream it out again,” the mother says as she tries to learn her daughter’s new name, and she keeps—possibly with tongue in cheek—slipping the new name in throughout the story) with serious undertones. Narrated by the mother, whose wry good sense contrasts vividly with her older daughter’s pretensions, the story highlights not only a generation gap, but a contrast between two sharply different attitudes toward the idea of heritage, an older sister who claims it, a mother and younger sister who live it.

Dee (the older sister), returning to her home, and having suddenly discovered that old quilts and dashers are potentially interesting decorations, accuses her mother and (younger) sister, Maggie, of not understanding their heritage because they fail to appreciate the artistic value of such objects. But, she herself is so divorced from her heritage that she does not know which member of the family made the dasher. It may be true, as Dee accuses, that Maggie and her mother don’t “understand” their heritage—at least not in an intellectual way.

The story suggests, however, that by using the quilt, and by having learned the traditional skills passed from generation to generation required to make one, Maggie, the homely, uneducated sister, knows more about her African American heritage than does Dee (Wangero). Maggie and her mother live their cultural heritage; they are nourished by it through everyday use and versed in the craftsmanship needed to pass it on to future generations.