Read with a Purpose

The idea of family heritage is the source of conflict in the story "Everyday Use." The two characters, Mama and her daughter, Dee, have different interpretations of heritage, which thus leads to conflict. Dee is portrayed as materialistic woman, and represents the idealist side of a spectrum. Throughout her life she has lusted for more than she had, and is implied to have a desire to leave her family behind to search for better. As a result, she worked hard, went to the city and integrated into the contemporary culture of the day. However, as the 1960s rolled by and the Civil Rights Movement was spurred, African Americans became increasingly proud of their long and oppressed history; and as Dee is obsessed with trend, and caught in superficial and ostentatious lifestyles, she realizes her pride of her heritage. As a result, Dee wished to possess the old quilts not for any practical use, but to put on display, to claim pride of her background (ironic, since in reality, she probably has little or no real pride in her ethnics).

Mama is on the other side of the spectrum from Dee. She has lived on a farm all her life, and as a result she is practical, simple, hardworking, and frugal. What she sees in the quilts is not so much the intrinsic value of its historical value. Instead, to Mama the quilts represent her culture and heritage, in which she valued the functionality, as well as personal sediments (as it reminded her of Grandma Dee).

Dee accuses Mama of not understanding her heritage because of just this. They possess directly opposite viewpoints on heritage and culture, Dee taking up the idealist end, and Mama the realist end. Dee is unable to see eye-to-eye with her mother, because she has become so upbeat and contemporary, and does not realize that her lifestyle has evolved and become different from her mother's lifestyle, which is much more practical and personal. As a result, she is unable to understand her mother's philosophy of "heritage."