She is ashamed of her family so much that she even changes her name, Dee, which was named after her grandma. Despite the fact, Dee ironically values the quilts that her grandma used to have, saying, “These are all pieces of dresses of Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine” (1176). She talks as if she really cares about her family and her memories about it. However, considering Dee’s ironic actions, Dee almost seems as if she is pretending to care about her heritage to only acquire the extrinsic value of her heritage. Thus, the irony here is that although Dee stresses the importance of heritage herself and criticizes her mother and Maggie for lacking very the knowledge of their heritage, it was her who was not able to accept her name, her heritage. That is why her mother didn’t allow Dee to have the quilt.Throughout the story really stresses the importance of heritage and suggests different ways to view one’s heritage. Anyone could have his/her own way to view his/her heritage as Dee and Maggie did. One might value the attachment to one’s ancestors via the heritage more than the heritage itself, and one might think the other way. Walker seems to be recommending her preferred way to view the heritage, which was Maggie’s view on heritage. Walker tells the reader that they can pursue the connections to their ancestors by accepting and preserving their heritage in proper way, and it is more important to keep being connected to the ancestors than to keep the heritage in better shape. ...
