Quilt

uses the quilt to symbolize the value of heritage was very meaningful during those times and should never be changed or forgotten. The quilt symbolizes the value and meaning of family heritage. Alice Walker writes "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" Dee tries to explain to her mother that…

place where they can forget their troubles. It represents a safe place and freedom in a life of chaos and hardship for Mom. Another major importance in the story is the quilts. To Mom, who has personally contributed to making the quilts, it represents the heritage and the legacy of generations of family relationships. One of the quilts is “pieced…

that Maggie was the chosen daughter to receive the two hands- stitched quilts since she sees heritage as memories of past people in her life and understands how the hand-stitched quilts should be put to “everyday use.” On the other hand, Dee received an education and is modern; she left behind her quiet rural town life and adapted to a newly constructed version of African- American heritage and argues that the hand-stitched quilts should be put on display as a decoration. Walker uses…

Mathilde Loisel, who wants more than she has, and because of this she ends up in a state which was worse than beforehand. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, is about a woman, Dee, who visits her family and tries to take a quilt that would look good hanging in her home, but the quilt has sentimental value to her younger sibling, Maggie, and her mother, Mama. Both short stories are similar, but also have different aspects. Each story is centered around objects that mean something to the women, these…

Alice Walker was born February 9, 1944 in the small town of Eatonton, Georgia to the parents of William Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Grant Walker. Walker’s parents were sharecroppers, like many African Americans, which sometimes made feeding a large family a challenge. While playing with her brothers, she accidentally got shot in the eye with a BB gun, resulting in permanent blindness. Walker has considered this accident the “catalyst for her retreat into the world of books” (Gillespie,…

Maggie wait for Mama’s other daughter, Dee (Wangero), to arrive with her boyfriend, Hakim-a-barber. After their arrival, Dee begins to takes tools and quilts that have been passed down through the family to preserve them. Mama and Dee discuss what the quilts mean to them but have differing views because Dee is educated, which leads to Mama keeping the quilts for Maggie. Throughout the short story “Everyday Use,” Mama and Dee portray their opposing viewpoints on the true meaning of heritage. In…

surroundings that she has been placed in. Both siblings left wanting the quilts made by their late family members and their Mama, while the only deciding factor to get them is Mama. “She can have them, Mama,” she said, like somebody used to never winning anything,…

life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands (Walker 403). Along with Mama, Grandma Dee is also a hardworking woman, carefully hand making the two family quilts. Dee elaborates on the importance of her grandmother’s hand sewn quilts by saying, “She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine!” (407). The two quilts are pieced in unique and elegant patterns, the Lone Star pattern and the Walk Around the Mountain pattern. Because she values her family heritage, Grandma Dee…

Use” has more education than both her mother and sister, Mama and Maggie. Ironically, Dee is given the privilege to learn more about the world outside of her home, but in the process loses attachments to her own heritage. Walker shows that the many quilts Dee’s mother had received as wedding gifts symbolize the strong connections she has with her ancestors and the struggles they had to endure. The story revolves around Mama and her drastic attitude change toward Dee, from the beginning of the…

conflicts this family suffers from, as well as the symbols presented in “Everyday use” we can see that Dee (Wangero) and Mama have two different meanings when it comes to heritage. The quilts in the story have showed that Dee’s (Wangero) perspective is that Mama and Maggie are living in the past by putting the quilts to everyday Use and they should be preserved. Mama wants their heritage and culture to go on forever and to not just be left in the past. Dee (Wangero) doesn’t realize that…