“My Mother Pieced Quilts” Theme Analysis In “My Mother Pieced Quilts”, Teresa Paloma Acosta presents the idea that family can provide comfort and safety through times of hardship. To begin with, Acosta mentions that her mother’s quilts were used “As weapons / Against pounding january winds” (3-4). This quote is a very explicit demonstration of how the quilts kept protected them from seasonal weather conditions. It also exaggerates the quilt, calling it a weapon which one can infer means that the quilts were vital to their lives.
The Century Quilt was written by Marilyn Nelson Waniek and she tells us about the history of her families quilt. The meaning of the quilt is expressed through literary devices such as symbolism, vivid imagery, and tone. The author used symbolism as a major technique to get the meaning of the quilt across to the reader. The author uses flashbacks to describe the past she has with the quilt.
The quilt tells a fictional story of the past histories of modernism, African-American culture, and an autobiography of the artist’s experiences. Ringgold struggled to be recognized in the past where the art world was dominated by social norm traditions and male artists. Her narrative quilt discusses the race and gender biases during the 1980s. Since Ringgold struggled to be an artist herself during the beginning years, she always recorded those realities throughout her quilts. And characteristics are
The poem, “The Century Quilt”, by Sarah Mary Taylor demonstrates the meaning of The Century Quilt through the use of tone, imagery and symbolism. This complex quilt has a way of bringing family together through means of remembrance, as the quilt will be passed on and on. Symbolism in this poem is most prominent in the title itself. “The Century Quilt” makes its implication of being passed on by the word, century. A century is a long period of time and within that time period the quilt will have been passed down through means of connecting with family.
In Marilyn Waniek’s, The Century Quilt, Waniek uses reminiscent memories filled with detailed imagery of the connections between her family and her Meema’s blanket to develop her hope and optimism for the future as she creates her “century quilt of memories” with her own family. In the beginning of the poem, Waniek begins with her memories of Meema's Indian Blanket. She speaks in past tense to allow the reader to explore the memories with her. The past tense language like “used to” and “I remembered” almost gives the beginning of the poem a storytelling feel.
All this repetition has this aim, and further, reveals the ideals of socioeconomic status. The connotations of her trying to see her heritage and feel it are different from the ideals of her mother; using the quilts for everyday
By doing so the author is further developing the significance. The narrator recalls multiple key memories that contribute to the significance of the blanket, as well as including her meema’s perspective and how she felt towards the quilt as well. The main character reflects on when she first found the quilt “how we used to wrap ourselves and play in its folds and become chieftains and princess” The quilt becomes far more than a blanket to her. It is the representation of her childhood. It is key to unlocking all her memories from long ago and also being a memory of meema.
“the quilts are the central symbol of the story representing the connectedness of history and intergenerational tries of the family” (“everyday use”). This means that the quilts mean heritage and remind the daughters of grand mom dee. The quilts are fought over at the end of the story because of the meaning of them. One daughter wants them for everyday use and one wants them just to have them because it means heritage to her. The mother at the end of the story agrees that they should be used for everyday use.
On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland beginning the Second World War. The 1940s was nothing but war and violence. Germany invaded Poland, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor bringing the U.S into the fight, Germany betrayed the Soviet Union and invaded Russia, U-Boat warfare occurred in the Atlantic, and the U.S opened a Western Front in France. All these played a part in the raging Second World War that claimed over 60 million lives. World War II is an important part of history because new strategies and tactics were introduced, such as new technology and the era of nuclear weapons.
Each piece of fabric represents the life and struggles of Mama’s ancestors. The quilt is a piece of history passed down from generation to generation, which embodies long lasting memories and legacy. Wangero asked, “Can I have these old quilts” (1193). Mama was not happy about the request and suggested other quilts.
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).
‘Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!’ She said. ‘She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.’ … ‘But, they're priceless!’ ” (172).
New Beginnings People come to America for new opportunities, for a better life, after all it is the land of the free and the home of the brave. However I never envisioned I would ever come to America. At the age of 8 my life changed forever. My mother wanted to leave our life behind and move to an unfamiliar country. I was shocked when my mom told me we be would coming here
As she looks at her quilts, Mama remembers that a certain patch came from her grandfather's paisley shirts, that some pieces came from dresses that Grandma Dee wore 50 years earlier, and even that there was a very small piece of her great-grandfather's Civil War uniform. From this, we can all see how and why they mean so much to her. To Dee, the quilts are a quaint "primitive" art. To Mama and Maggie, they represent more than that. They are family memories, very personal and very special mementos of loved ones who are gone.
Having done so, she goes on to highlight the ‘womanist’ culture. Afro-American tradition, for Mama, is symbolized by churn. It is a tradition of bonding, of mutual nurturance. Similarly, the symbol of quilt for Mama is not just a utilitarian item but a living tradition. Alice Walker, in fact, uses the imagery of the quilt to suggest what womanism is all about.
