In both works, the theme of inheritance seems to be very internal; it is not on the surface. In Everyday Using, on the surface lies the mother’s relationship with her daughters, her thoughts, dreams, and memories; her fault and understanding of the mistakes of upbringing. The Parable of the Lost Son explains the parable of filial sins and the forgiving father. The myth raises the topic of forgiveness and the ability to believe in a person again.
In Everyday Using, one of the daughters is a superficial girl, a consumer of modern culture. She unconditionally follows fashion and does not reflect on her actions and the past; she rushes into the maelstrom headlong into adventures and sees the meaning of life in this. The mother looks at her and cannot stand internal conflict. She sees that Dee’s current values reject their family and family tree altogether, family history. Dee spiritually and mentally left her mother’s house long ago and denied everything their family held dear. She rejected the inheritance without realizing it; she rejected the memory of her ancestors, thereby depriving herself of the physical inheritance in the form of blankets. Mom gives preference to Maggie, seeing that she may not lead an active life, but she deserves a heritage because she remains faithful to the memory of her ancestors.
In The Parable of the Lost Son, sons also do not appear in identical conditions and lead a different way of life, which leads them to various life circumstances. The sinful son, who returned home after extravagance, is ready to atone for sins and work for his father as a slave. The father calls him resurrected after death and has a feast. The conflict, fundamentally based on the plot, is not between the two. If we consider the topic of inheritance, then the second son gets into the battle, who worked with his father all this time and never contradicted him, as he himself claims. Here it becomes noticeable that his thoughts were not initially pure. Working with his father, he hoped to receive an inheritance, physical gratitude in the form of material wealth. In this situation, the sinful son rejects the heritage, but the one who was with his father claims. He shows that he is looking for benefits in a relationship with his father.
In both cases, the inheritance was awarded to children who dared not claim it, realizing that they were unworthy. Maggie, overwhelmed by a sense of shame for her condition and a sinful son, feels guilty. Their parents, father, and mother see the actual state of affairs and endow them with benefits. They believe that this is true, even though, at first glance, there is no logic.
Heritage always consists of material wealth and the memory of ancestors or family values. Sometimes, as in the case of blankets, substantial inheritance is a vehicle for intangible values; but this state of affairs is not always so transparent. Only a memory that has absorbed fundamental family values deserves to take possession of material goods, whatever they may be; people cannot deny memory and claim material wealth. In this case, Dee’s act is intriguing, as she changes her name, which was inherited from her grandmother. She was not even aware of this fact, so she did not know the history of her name. Changing it is very symbolic since giving a child a name is a first and primary gift from parents to children. To change it means to refuse and reject this gift, this heritage.