In the short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker tells the story of a young woman, Dee, who seeks to find her identity that would include the traditions of her culture, its heritage and its current status. The meaning of traditions to Dee's sister Maggie and her mother is that traditions were built on the basis of inherited objects and ways of thinking, while Dee believes that traditions are not in everyday use and are depraved by their history. Near the end of the story, Dee came home from school asking for some old quilts that were to belong to Maggie later in life. In an effort to make things right, the mother snatches the quilts from Dee, giving them to Maggie who will appreciate them in a different way than Dee. On the surface of the story, "Everyday Use" reveals how the mother gradually rejects Dee's one-dimensional values, favoring Maggie's reasonable values, but on a deeper level, Alice Walker examines ideas of inheritance through their contrasts Africans. American female characters. From the beginning of the story, it is clear that the tension that has arisen between Dee and her family is due to her upbringing outside the home. Dee is no longer tied to the idea of ​​everyday usefulness, working the land and the house, but is more balanced in the world of education and ever since sublimely useful. On the other hand, her mother believes that knowledge is only useful when it is anchored in daily tasks. Dee's knowledge of the modern world is foreign and dangerous to her mother, including "other people's habits" and "lies", which makes Maggie and her mother feel "ignorant and trapped" because they have a different learning tradition. going far beyond the means of...... middle of paper ......t Maggie sees her heritage as the memories of those ancestors from her past and their influence on her life (Norton 1536). She didn't object to Dee because she knew that without the quilts, she would be able to remember the memories she had about the quilts. Maggie's childhood was filled with hurt; upon seeing her house burn to the ground, she is able to retain her fond memories better than Dee. In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker attempts to express two contradictory beliefs, their heritage, and their struggle to make one better than the other. It seems to the reader that traditions and heritage are ingrained in them from a young age and as maturity comes, they must decide whether to retain or abandon these traditions. By the end of the story, the title takes on greater significance in how we look at traditions that are rooted and how they change..