Sunday, August 23, 2015

Why does Dee think that mama and Maggie don't understand their heritage in "Everyday Use"?

Dee thinks that Mama and Maggie do not understand or appreciate their heritage because they routinely use the family items that Dee thinks should be preserved.  First, she marvels over the rump prints in the benches that her father made when they were too poor to buy chairs.  Then, she insists that she wants Grandma Dee's butter dish (even though she doesn't want to keep her name, same as her grandmother's), then the churn top and the dasher: all of which Mama and Maggie still use in daily life.


The final straw, however, is when Dee insists that she wants the old family quilts, refusing newer ones because they have been stitched by machines instead of by hand.  Mama says that the machine-stitching will help them to hold up longer, but Dee doesn't want to use them; she wants to hang them.  When Mama tells her that those hand-stitched quilts are promised to Maggie, Dee cries, "'Maggie can't appreciate these quilts! [...] She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.'"  Thus, for Dee, heritage is something to preserve, to show off; for Mama and Maggie, heritage is remembering and using those items made by loved ones because that's how one keeps one's family and heritage alive.  Heritage, for them, is meant for everyday use, and this is why Dee believes that they cannot appreciate it.

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