What is the author's message (theme) about family?

By juxtaposing the
sympathetic character,
Maggie, with her deep knowledge and respect for her family members and
their
traditions and stories, and the misguided Dee, with her lack of understanding of
her
family's importance in terms of her heritage, Walker shows that familial
heritage is as, if not
more, important as one's racial heritage.Dee is
anxious to embrace her racial heritage, changing
her name so that she is not
named for her oppressors, but she fails to internalize the fact that
her name
is a family name.She is named after generations of strong
and
respected women in her own family, but she isn't interested in those
stories because they do not
fulfill her need to have artifacts of her
history.She cares about material objects more than she
cares to learn family
traditions, like quilting, or family stories, like who made what, when,
and
why.Maggie, with her humble knowledge of these things actually honors her heritage more
than
Dee can conceive.