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Alice Walker Quilts Analysis

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Alice Malsenior Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in a small town to the southeast of Atlanta, Georgia, called Eatonton. She was the youngest daughter of eight born to her parents, a sharecropper and a maid. Her mother worked as a maid to help provide for their poor family. At eight years old, Walker was shot in the right eye by a BB pellet while playing with her two brothers. The accident caused whitish scar tissue to form in her damaged eye. At that point in her life, she became very self-conscious and felt "ugly and disfigured." That was when she began to find comfort in reading and writing poetry. She attended segregated schools and graduated as valedictorian of her class. She went on to attend college at Spelman, in Atlanta, and then …show more content…

This is the climax of the story because Maggie actually shows some personality and "fights back" because she also wants the quilts. The quilts mean different things to both of the girls. To Maggie, the quilts represent family bonds and heritage. She understands the true meaning of them because she and Mama share a connection through the quilts. They have both experienced pain and joy throughout their lives, and so have the quilts. Since the quilts embody pieces of Mama's mother's clothing in the patchwork, Maggie understands that the quilts have their family heritage sewn in them. On the other hand, Dee does not fully grasp this. Her understanding of family heritage is not as strong because she has already changed her name from Dee, a family name, to Wagero. She has always thought that she wants "new and nice things." It is not until she comes back home from leaving for college that she realizes that the quilts for their fashionable …show more content…

Some members of the family do not understand the meaning of family heritage and get lost in having "newer and nicer things," rather than having heirlooms passed down to them from earlier generations. Maggie and Dee differ from the reasons that they want the quilts. The only similarity they share is the desire to own the quilts. Maggie has always thought that Mama would hand the quilts down to her when it comes times; Dee decides that the quilts will only be taken care of if they are in her possession. Being the humble and quiet person she is, Maggie tells Mama to give the quilts to Dee. In return, Mama realizes that Maggie deserves them for herself. Maggie's identity shines through when her face lights up after Mama snatches the quilts from Dee. In "Everyday Use", Alice Walker spotlights the struggle that African Americans faced during that time to find their personal

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343 Words | 2 Pages

Maggie in Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” plays the role of being the nervous and ugly sister of the story, however she is the child with the good heart. Maggie was nervous ashamed of her scars “Maggie was nervous… she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs”. Living in a house with a pretty sister and being the ugly sister with scars could be the reason why she picked up on a timid personality, being ‘ashamed’ of her own skin shaping her in a way that she degraded herself from everybody else. Maggie was not this way before the fire, her mother stated, as it is quoted that she had adopted to a certain walk ever since the fire.

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664 Words | 3 Pages

"She 'd probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use" (320). Dee thinks Maggie would be dumb to keep the quilts for “everyday use”. Also, she figured her family did not know their own heritage. Dee feels as though her sister should “make something of” herself. She states, “It’s really a new day for us” to show that Maggie needs to see a greater amount of the world.

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today.

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587 Words | 3 Pages

Everyday Use and Sula are coming of age stories. They both illustrate times in people’s lives when they have to decide to how they are going to live with their past and themselves. The short story "Everyday Use", Alice Walker emphasizes the aspect of individuality. The story focuses on the lives of two sisters, Maggie and Dee.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

When Dee practically demands the quilts promised to Maggie, Maggie automatically forfeits them without complaint. She never takes the time to battle her sister and she doesn't lose her composure. She, akin to a defenseless child, gives in to the pressure of Dee. "She can have them, [the quilts] Mama,” She is far more worried about keeping the peace and hiding from the commotion than defending what belongs to her. This professes Maggie to be a very complacent and scared girl, especially in the face of her sister Dee.

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987 Words | 4 Pages

When people spend time away from civilization and society they forget what the normalities of that society are and begin to create their own. “Lord of the flies” by William Golding is a gothic horror style novel written about a group of english school boys who find themselves deserted on an island after a major plane crash. The boys who age from as young as six to as old as twelve find themselves on the island alone with no adults and are essentially left to fend for themselves. After spending so such a long amount of time away from civilization has led them to forget how to act in an way that would fit the idea if norm in an english society and instead slowly begin to make their own societal norms on the island. A character who embodies

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1032 Words | 5 Pages

Sarnowski describes Maggie by stating, “She ekes out an existence on the family farm and has neither the intelligence nor the physical attributes of Dee/Wangero” (Sarnowski 278). This statement shows that Maggie lives a conservative type of farm life, and due to this lifestyle, she is less intelligent than her sister. This statement also shows how the character Maggie is described in a sense as inferior to Dee because of her lack of education and physical attributes. Maggie’s traditionalist ways show, however, when she tells her mother, “"She can have them, Mama,” … "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts"” (Walker 6).

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1338 Words | 6 Pages

“Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. “she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (walker). This shows that dee really wants the quilts but not for the reason her mother wants.

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1149 Words | 5 Pages

This new outlook on her life caused Dee to place different values on the items with which she had grown up. She wanted to take the items as things to put on display like art hanging on a wall. Dee even wanted the cherished quilts to “hang them” (Walker, 1973) instead of using them as blankets. As she saw it, to use the quilts for their original purpose would destroy them, or as she said, “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they 'd be in rags” (Walker, 1973).

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1357 Words | 6 Pages

In the short story” Everyday Use” by Alice Walker who tells a story about black women who have two daughters Maggie and Dee. She has to have the decision to give the quilts of one of her two daughters. Dee her oldest daughter who has been away at college and comes to visit her family and she wants the quilts as popular fashion and show them as part of their heritage. Maggie, her youngest daughter, who lives with her mother at home and understands the family tradition and heritage.her mother has been promised to give the quilts for her. The quilts mean for Maggie communication with family and culture.

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610 Words | 3 Pages

(Nancy Tuten) agrees by saying, "Mama's distaste for Dee's egotism is tempered by her desire to be respected by her daughter.” The Mom’s character changes during the quilt scene, as she realizes that Maggie shares the appreciation of culture and heritage, and Dee's appreciation is entirely different from theirs. During the quilt scene, Dee is demanding Mom to give her the quilts, and Mom says, "when I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet.” In other words the daughter who she has always thought so highly of knew little of their culture and had little appreciation for their heritage. Walker creates the “mom” character to help defend her point, which is the importance of upholding the values and traditions in the African American

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721 Words | 3 Pages

Mama always dreamed that she will be in a show with her daughter Dee and Dee will be thanking mama of all what she’s done for her, but she knows it won’t happen. Maggie is smaller than Dee and she is always nerves and very shy, when she was a child their house got burned at that time she was very scared maybe that’s what makes her nerves and shy and that also hides her personality what she looks from the inside she hides it from the outside. Maggie lives at home with mama, she never spends time in the outer world she always stays at home and mama protects

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1283 Words | 6 Pages

This point of view contributes to this story is multiple ways. Mama narrating this story helps to give the reader insight into the past of the characters. Mama was there for everything that happened in the lives of her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. She knows their personalities and how they feel about their heritage and lives. As a result of Mama’s knowledge of these important details, Mama is able to add a contrast between the past and the present.

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1561 Words | 7 Pages

These quilts are a ways of honoring her African American heritage and to be given these was very significant in their culture. For once Dee sees the historical background because of the stitching and material used, but doesn’t find any use in using them. Dee is going to try and convince her mom to let her keep the quilts, when Dee says, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” (Walker 721) and “You just will not understand. The point these quilts, these quilts!”

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1026 Words | 5 Pages

Maggie did not go to school, does not dress in colorful attention-getting African garb, and does not have a fancy boyfriend, but she does slam a door which indicates her feelings about the quilts and butter churn her sister has come to claim out from under her feet. The temper has flared, and Maggie gets her quilts. In conclusion, the story seems to tell how different Maggie and Dee were from each other; with few comparisons between the two girls to suggest that they had anything in

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