Quilts And Symbolism In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

In the story “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker, the story is told from the perspective of the Mama and the story involves two daughters.The oldest daughter changes her name and doesn't appreciate her culture, Dee and Maggie both want the family quilt. Dee wants the quilt, but the mom doesn't want to give the quilt to her, she wants to give the quilt to Maggie. Maggie wants to hold on to her heritage and Dee doesn't understand her heritage, her mom knows that Dee won't hold on to the family heritage.In the poem “My Mother Pieced Quilts” memories revolve around the poem.The poem is mainly about the mother's talent of weaving and how she weaves memories out of old fabric she finds that doesn't work anymore.In both of these stories,

In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the author describes different ideas about one’s heritage. Culture and heritage is at the main point of the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker as symbolized by the quilt. The bond that Mother and Maggie share is brought by their common talent to make works of art like quilts. Dee does not have similar capacity because she does not appreciate manual labor nor believes in her heritage. The idea of pride in culture, heritage, and family is the main theme of the story. The line between being proud of whom one is and exploiting one’s self is broken and blurred by one character. The other two keep their firm ground in living out their values, rather than using it simply as a conversation starter.

Alice Walker is a well-known African- American writer known for published fiction, poetry, and biography. She received a number of awards for many of her publications. One of Walker's best short stories titled "Everyday Use," tells the story of a mother and her two daughters' conflicting ideas about their heritage. The mother narrates the story of the visit by her daughter, Dee. She is an educated woman who now lives in the city, visiting from college. She starts a conflict with the other daughter, Maggie over the possession of the heirloom quilts. Maggie still lives the lifestyle of her ancestors; she deserves the right of the quilts. This story explores heritage by using symbolism of the daughters' actions, family items, and tradition.

Here the tone shifted from prideful to authoritative. Dee demanded to own the two quilts. Mama said the quilts had been made by her ancestors and she “hung up on them on the quilt frames on the front porch and made them (762).” The quilt frames symbolize the object which helps organize and keep the family's generations alive, and the front porch symbolizes the connection of the family with the world. Mama knew the quilts were what kept the generations together, regardless of what the people around thought or did.The quilts needed to be used in order to keep the family traditions alive. Soon after, the protagonist came up with an excuse and said the “lavender [pieces], [came] from old clothes” which had been “handed down (762).” The lavender symbolizes love and devotion. The old clothes symbolize the legacy of the family's heritage. Although Dee only wanted to the quilts, Mama felt her past family's love and devotion through the quilts. Dee wanted the quilts because to preserve them, not because of an emotional connection to them. In addition, the young woman continued to offend her mother to the point where Mama told her the quilts were for Maggie, the youngest sister, and Dee exclaimed how her sister could never “appreciate the quilts.” She continued and said “She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use (762).” Everyday use represents the “everyday use” of customs and true purpose of the quilts. Although Dee thinks her sister will destroy the blankets through sex and daily use, Mama wanted her to understand how everything she wanted had a special purpose in their

There has been plenty of time when people decided that they needed change. Can breaking the tradition be good for you? I once experienced change when I felt the need to move from my hometown to Hattiesburg,Ms. I eventually went back to visit, and I stumbled upon a problem. I couldn't remember my friends name's. Furthermore, I honestly believe that Maggie, from "Everyday Use", should get the quilt that was made by her grandma. Dee Wangero came back, and she was a changed girl. Even though Dee wanted the quilt,Maggie should acquire the quilt because she was willing to offer the quilt to Dee.

Alice Walkers “Everyday Use”, is a story about a family of African Americans that are faced with moral issues involving what true inheritance is and who deserves it. Two sisters and two hand stitched quilts become the center of focus for this short story. Walker paints for us the most vivid representation through a third person perspective of family values and how people from the same environment and upbringing can become different types of people.

physically and mentally, quilting has acted as an art that transcends racial barriers and to bring

Different types of symbolism are used to add significance to point out uniqueness in connotations that a writer uses when writing literature. An author’s literary works may include multiple symbols to give perception to his or her readers. When a writer uses a symbol, it is intended to heighten the sense a reader’s communication of literary works. The three key symbols in the short story in “Everyday Use” is that of quilts stored away in a trunk, the house, and hands. The quilts represented the African American’s women talent of creativity from those that were made from by other individuals from other people. It is noted that the quilts depicted that a guiding principle during the time of slavery for which they were used to send a form of communication to other slaves (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012). As stated by Kirszner and Mandell (2012), “One design, the Log Cabin, was hung outside to mark a house of refuge for fugitive slaves. Other quilts mapped escape routes out of a plantation or county, often by marking the stars that would act as a guide to freedom for those escaping at night” (page. 345). When slavery came to an end, the quilts created during this period of time were remembered for their significance of ethnicity and legendary importance by the African Americans. Dee was the daughter of the momma who thought it would be better to change her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo as she did not want to carry the heritage name as it seem to trouble her. Dee looks around for items that she can back home with rather than spend valuable time with her mama and Maggie. Suddenly takes notice a truck that is sitting at the end of her mama’s bed, and she pulls out two quilts that were made by her very own ancestors. Dee requests to take the quilts home with her; however, the mama informs her that she had plans to give them to Maggie upon her marriage. Dee was selfish as she wanted them for herself only to display them on a wall, and requested the ones that were completely sewn by hand. The mother suddenly reminisces how the different pieces had a story behind them about herself and her heritage. Why, the quilts were made to be put on a bed. Dee had an opportunity to take a quilt with her when she went off to college

Together with the beliefs comes heritage which is defined as traditions passed on for years, family items and etc. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, describes about a poor family who have a different perspective about the word “heritage”. “You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts”. This quote connects to the title of the story because Dee thinks that Maggie and her mother will use the quilt every day. Dee has a whole different perspective of the quilts. She views the quilts as a small reminder of her heritage, that is dying. For her mother and her sister, the quilts symbolizes a bond to their cultural identity and their connection to the quilts. Because Dee has failed to understand the true meaning to their “ heritage” and she is convinced that Maggie has proven that she understands the value of the quotes symbolize in the true meaning of a person’s heritage.

Alice Walker, a famous author, stated in her short story, Everyday Use, “Dee (Wangero) looked at me with hatred. “You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts.” Each person’s identity is shaped from a culture that is built with the offering of everything in his or her surrounding environment. Culture is one of the most important factors, though there are many other contributing factors, that can influence someone’s perspective on the world because all of their opinions, decisions, and morals are all based off of their surrounding environment. In the poem and story, “My Mother Pieced Quilts” and Everyday Use, they both demonstrate how one’s cultural identity is influenced by his or her surroundings, changing the

In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, Walker juxtaposes two different daughters in their quest for a cultural identity. The narrator, their mother, talks about how each daughter is different; Dee went off to college and became well-educated, contrary to their impoverished and low status as black women in the south. Meanwhile, Maggie isn’t nearly as educated as Dee is, but is still literate. The entire story centers around Dee’s visit with her new Muslim significant other. The story’s climax is when Dee wants to take two special quilts back home, but those quilts are for Maggie. These precious quilts comprise their culture. Henceforth, Dee does not deserve to take the quilts with her because she has decided to take on a culture that varies significantly from her own and she is already used to getting what she wants.

In the short story Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, the short story is narrated by a black woman in the South who is faced with the decision to give away two quilts to one of her two daughters. Dee, her oldest daughter who is visiting from college, perceives the quilts as popular fashion and believes they should undoubtedly be given to her. Maggie, her youngest daughter, who still lives at home and understands the family heritage, has been promised the quilts. Dee is insistent to possess these heirlooms of family heritage, while Maggie is forbearing in allowing Mama to make her own decision as to who should receive the quilts. Dee shows a lack of appreciation, disrespect, and a distancing behavior towards her mother and sister. Mama

The story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is full of symbolism. One of the most symbolic items that stand out to me the most is the quilts. Dee does not understand the importance of the swatches used to make the quilt nor, where the history behind them. Mama has a unique understanding and can see the priceless value of the swatches that makes the quilt. “Mama” considers the quilts as treasures that tell a family history.

“Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walker, which emphasizes the importance of understanding and cherishing your heritage and the inheritance that may come along with it. Knowing who is truly entitled to the inheritance, and what their heritage meant was the central conflict in the story, when the two main characters Dee and Maggie, both wanted the two hand stitched quilts. Rather than looking at the physical aspect of the quilts the author wants the reader to know that the meaning is much deeper. The quilts are used to depict the struggle, triumphs, oppression, joy, pain, and love of each hand that helped to create the prized works of art. The quilts needed to be put to everyday use, rather than a mere decoration on the wall. Through the quilts Walker was able to show what each character valued: Dee valued the materials things, Maggie, valued things she could attach herself to, and Mama valued the acceptance of her daughter Dee.

By watching the movie, we can understand that Quilt has multiple affects on different people. Susanna Calderon is a traditional quilter that tells her “Repeated patterns speak to something very deep.” It has help the artist/teacher Grace Earl to occupied her mind from loneliness time in her retirement and in the absent of her children. It has started has an vocation she said, “You have to have meaningful colors.” Probably referring to having a habit. For the artist and Bulgarian immigrant Radka Donnell, Quilt appears after some difficulty time in her life. It has