Everyday Use Quilts

Dee is on her way home with Asalamalakin. She always wanted more than her family history or what Mama could offer her. Dee is intelligent and driven, her accomplishments have come at the expense of her mother and little sister. Even though most people should value their family rather than the materialistic things that represent their family; to her, she has a different perspective on her family and Mama. She wanted to get the quilts that are passed down from generations. Even though Dee went off to college that her mother and the church paid for, and she does not live in their house anymore, she does not like the way their house looks. In her family, there is only her mother and her younger sister Maggie. Dee think their house is hideous and …show more content…
The quilts contain small pieces of garments worn by relatives all the way back to the Civil War. “… They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them not he quilt frames on the from porch and quilted … was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s unifier that he wore in the Civil War” (Walker 320). Dee insists she wants the ones hand-stitched by her grandmother. Dee tries to convince Mama that Maggie will only use the quilts until they turn into rags. Dee set on taking the quilts and preserving them as artifacts of her family's heritage, arguing that the scraps of fabric are important because they have worn by past family members. However, Mama disagrees and took the quilts from Dee and gave it to Maggie instead. To Dee, the quilts represent the historical significance of an oppressed people.
So, before Dee leaves, she informs Mama that she does not understand her heritage. She tells Mama and Maggie to try and improve themselves and that it is a new day for black Americans. “… ‘You just don’t understand,… Your heritage,… You ought to try to make something of yourself too… It’s really a new day for us. Bust from the day you and Mama still live you’d never know it” (Walker