Symbolism In Everyday Use

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Alice Walker uses a substantial amount of symbolism in her short story “Everyday Use”. Walker describes each characters personality and how it correlates with the way they view their heritage. She [Walker] also uses this story to show the difference between culture and heritage as the two are often mistaken to be one and the same. The most important symbol in “Everyday Use” would be the quilts. The quilts represent the heritage of the family. Each piece of cloth had a significant tie with a past family member which makes it valuable. They aren’t valuable in the sense of them being ancient artifacts, as Dee sees it, but as treasures that are protected to be passed down to the future generations of the family (i.e. Mama saving the quilts for

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