The Theme Of Culture In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

Culture is one of the biggest aspects in “Everyday Use” as it is depicted in many ways throughout the short story. Many families define themselves with a culture and tend to follow all the rules or bend them as they go on with life. The difference between the present and past of all cultures, is that many have turned off the path due to new distractions. New distractions can be explained by the updated technology, society influences and even from a good education. Interferences like these cause many people to stray off their heritage, but it is the matter of whether people want to continue living with their heritage forever or change it. Walker uses theme and symbolism to illustrate how important or unimportant heritage is to Mama and her kids.
The symbolism of the quilts in “Everyday Use” shows how important they are to Mama, Maggie and Dee. When Dee came down to visit her family, she began picking out different objects to take back with her. These objects were used in their heritage daily and Mama still used them in her cooking life. While Dee wanted to take them “as aesthetic objects rather than seeing them as symbols of oppression” just to put them on display and not actually use them like how they should be (“eNotes”, n.d.). This angered Mama a little because she knew that Maggie would actually make use of them and not turn them into a museum exhibit. So, when Dee aimed to take the quilts that she believed “are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand”, she did not actually know the real story of the quilts (Walker, n.d.). But Mama had already promised to give the quilts to Maggie when she married as she will be “representing the Johnsons’ traditions and cultural heritage.” (Velazquez, n.d.). Mama realized that “Dee’s lack of knowledge concerning her family is symbolic of the Black Power movement’s disregard for its American heritage.”, which showed that she did not deserve the quilts (White, 2001). These quilts symbolized how important heritage is and that it should
Mama has great pride in her heritage because of all the influence her family passed on to her. Dee has shown that she disses the heritage as she tells Maggie “to make something of [her]self” instead of living in the same olden days with Mama. This portrays that heritage only shows importance to those who seek it like Mama and Maggie. Dee on the other hand, only respects the new life and new days to come ahead and forgets about her history. Velazquez states that “what is culture but what is home to us” which allows the readers to understand that not only does culture define us, but it also grants us safety and comfort (Velazquez,