Everyday Use By Alice Walker Summary

Everyday Use by Alice Walker explains heritage to be a tangible object, oral stories, or significant places that are shared from generation to generation. Any form of heritage is remarkably important in a family tree. It keeps us connected to our family line, religion, and beliefs from a long background of where we come from. Traditions change with many different aspects of a family’s background and each family is unique. My family, the Grubbs and Trivitts, have various ongoing traditions like names, plants and quilts, pieces of a wedding dress and Bourbon, afterlife, and symbolism of bedtime stories. Alice Walker illustrates in her short story that heritage can be diverse within a family and individuals. The main characters in the story are Mama and …show more content…
The first artifact is given at birth with a great meaning on the Trivitt side. A tree is planted on the day of your birth and is meant to symbolize how you will flourish into a sturdy strong young man and women. On each birthday you pose with the blooming tree to see process with the two. Another object given at birth is a homemade quilt with multiple patterns. Attached with each blanket is a note stitched on, the notes reads a sweet heartfelt message from the creator of the quilt. My quilt reads “QUOTE”. Once you are grown into a young adult the next step is marriage. On the Grubb branch if you are a female you have given parts of past wedding dresses to join with your own for a blessing. Another critical tradition in the family and also in the south is one month before the ceremony the bride and the groom buries a bottle of Bourbon upside down at the site to keep the rain away. On the day of the wedding you dig it up and drink it together under sunny skies. Each of the traditions has been around for centuries and is sure to be passed down for more generations to