Alice Walker’s short story ‘Everyday Use’ is about Dee seeing her heritage and the legacy of her ancestors as something that has already passed and gone, so that there is a danger of her true heritage being abandoned and lost. However, Mama’s understanding demonstrates that she and Maggie are are still linked through the way they live in rural poverty in the South to their ancestors (by the everyday use of items like the quilts).
Dee’s name change is symptomatic of the person she has become. As Christian (14) writes:
Dee/Wangero in ‘Everyday Use’ is embarrassed by ...
