Heritage\Culture - Sophomore English Project

Emily Avdem

English 10

November 18, 2013

Heritage\Culture

Have you been named after a relative? Do you eat lefse every year near Christmas time? Those are a few things that would be a part of a person’s heritage or culture. Have you ever been confused about what your heritage or culture is? A short story called, “Everyday Use” is exactly about that. The author, Alice Walker, that wrote “Everyday Use” is saying that knowing and understanding your heritage and culture is very important. Some key points in the story are Dee’s name, the yard, and the quilt.

The yard is a very essential part of African heritage. They take care of their yard as we would take care of our cell phones. Also, they consider their yard apart of their house, if not more important. This is made clear in Mama’s statement, “It is not just a yard, it is like an extended living room.” Mama says, “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon,” which makes the yard seem more beautiful and interesting. All of this shows that in the African heritage they like being outside and they take making their yard neat and welcoming very seriously. Another key point is, Dee’s name.

In the African heritage, you are usually named after an ancestor. Being named after an ancestor is a big part of the culture and has a lot of meaning to it. Usually the names are traced all the way back to years and years ago. Mama backs this up when she says, “That’s about as far back as I can trace it. Though, in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches.” The last key point in the story is, the quilt.

In African heritage they don’t really use things for decorations or put a lot of hard work into something just to have it sit out and get dusty. They put to use what they have. This is shown when Dee makes the comment of Maggie being unappreciative of the quilt and putting it to everyday use and Mama replies, “I reckon she would, God knows I been saving ‘em for long enough with nobody using ‘em.”

In conclusion, an African heritage is about taking good care of the important things, knowing about your ancestors, and making good use of the things you have. Do you know and understand the importance of your heritage and culture?