“Everyday Use” Alice Walker Each person is raised within a culture, a set of traditions handed down by those before us. As individuals, we view and experience common heritage in subtly differing ways. Within smaller communities and families, deeply felt traditions serve to enrich this common heritage. “Everyday Use” explores how, in her eagerness to claim her heritage, a woman may deny herself the experience of ancestral traditions. The central theme of Alice Walker's “Everyday …showed first 75 words of 545 total…

…showed last 75 words of 545 total…heart. Dee understands the heritage of people she doesn’t know. While her mother and sister, Maggie, have a high level of self-understanding, Wangero is unable to fully understand her true heritage. In this way, her adopted heritage can be understood on an intellectual basis by the reader, but it is not felt, not personal, and not truly her own. Works Cited Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Literature. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**