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Piedmont-Marton Everyday Use Theme

Decent Essays

“Everyday Use,” a modern classic written by Alice Walker tells the story of a mother and her two daughters’ conflicting outlooks on identity and heritage. Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton unveils the main themes within the story notably concerning the characters’ connections to their ancestral roots. Dee and Maggie’s relation to their heritage rest on the memories of their mothers and grandmothers possessions. Piedmont-Marton expresses the importance of these possessions, particularly the quilt as “quilting symbolizes the process out of which the unimportant and meaningless may be transformed into the valued and useful.” Quilts designed for everyday use are unified wholes of “faded patches” where the “stitching resembles healing.” Piedmont-Marton

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