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Comparing Everyday Use By Alice Walker And Teresa Palomo Acosta

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In the story, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and the poem, ”MY MOTHER PIECED QUILTS” by Teresa Palomo Acosta, the two works both talk about quilts. They differ in the ways people appreciate them. Walker uses the aspect of a family with a very rich heritage. The heritage has the two daughters torn apart in their thoughts and actions towards the nostalgic items. Theses items mean alot to one because of how she has experienced them, but the other not some much because she was taught what they mean. Acosta explains that the common and little things are what make quilts special in many ways. The items that make up the quilt, have memories attached meaning. These memories can not be taught, they can only be experienced. The story, “Everyday Use” displays a mother with her two daughters in the middle of a dilemma. Walker explains that one daughter whose name is Dee, was sent off to school. This education sent Dee to have a new found interest in her ancestry and to also change her name to Wangero. At the very same time …show more content…

Maggie and her mother in, “Everyday Use” display the correct way to appreciate the greatness within a quilt. Acosta writes as if she was proving that the past is the past and needs to be experienced. Dee in, “Everyday Use” depicts a person who is just trying to use their heritage as a conversation starter or just to show off. In that way also showing that the education does not further you in the appreciation of your roots. Acosta discounts this in a way due to her saying that as she awoke, she wondered how the quilt was stitched. This just shows that her disappreciation for quilts, which is not the only thing Dee does in the story. Dee also does not show respect to the families butter churn, as she took the top off of it just because it was nice rendering it useless. These act shows that education is not always the answer for your

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In the story Everyday Use, there is conflict between the two main characters Maggie and Dee. The two sisters are arguing over their Grandma 's quilt. Maggie feels that she deserves the quilt because she will cherish it and make great use out of it, unlike her sister who only wants to frame it in order to remember her heritage. Dee is not used to being told "no" and she has always got everything she has ever asked for, which is why she puts up a fight for the quilt. Dee then goes on to explain to her family on page 172, how she is changing her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo.

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The intriguing texts, “My Mother Pieced Quilts” by Teresa Palomo Acosta, and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker contain two main ideas that explain how everyone’s culture has a direct influence on the way that we view the world. In other words, each of our backgrounds are full of experiences and knowledge, and we use what we know in every aspect in life. Specifically, Acosta expressed in her poem, “... how the thread darted in and out / galloping along the frayed edges, tucking them in / as you did us at night.” This passage is suggesting when the author remembers her mother mother making quilts, she remembers the memories that she associated with the quilts, making the quilts have a special meaning to her and her culture growing up. Additionally, Walker had a similar idea in her narrative about quilts but she includes another example where she writes,”...

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Dee hated... “Being named after the people who oppress me” (318). Dee even changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo being who she wanted to be. She could be very ignorant when it came to things about herself and what she wanted. She does not comprehend that her sister does not have much and truly will require the coverlets. Wangero is unmindful all around; she comes off to her family as though she is superior to anything.

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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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In “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker the story brings a theme about sister rivalry. The two sisters, Maggie and Dee think differently about their culture, making them become apart from each other. Maggie is the shy and nervous sister while Dee is the confident and selfish sister. The quilt is what they valued different because it was a symbol for heritage for Dee ,but Maggie knows her heritage and she can remember it. The story makes the sister realizing their own self by having a conflict about the quilt.

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Mama wanted nothing but the best for her; she did everything in her power to get her to college because she wanted her to have a better life than she did. However, Dee used her education against Mama and Maggie in efforts to present her culture in a “better” way. Changing her name to Wangero because her birth name “Dee”, as she informed them “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people oppress me” (Walker 27). In contrast, Mama and Maggie never changed the way they dressed “African descent” or change their names to portray their true

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In "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, two sisters wanting the handmade quilts that symbolize the family heritage that’s passed down from generation to generation. The quilt plays a major role in representing symbolism, in "Everyday Use" quilts are symbolic to the family's culture, heritage and it's values to their offspring. A symbol is when the author uses an object in the story to represent a significant explanation. The quilt is a symbol of family inheritance that can be only respected by certain people.

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Dee goes through a situation with her Mama that taught her she cannot have everything she wants, she’s confused about her inheritance. At the beginning of the story Dee demands to be called a different name rejecting her family valuing the quilts, but as the narrator describes, “I didn’t want to bring up how I offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college she told me they were old fashioned, out of the style” (Walker 432). The narrator is the Mama telling about the event that happened between her and her daughters. While telling it she learned that she always neglected Maggie for De, and it brought a sense of realization to herself. At the beginning Mamas tone is self-confident and proud; however, at the end of the story it changes to defensive and sarcastic.

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Here, the quilt is merely just not a quilt but a heritage. It was hand made by the grandmother and aunts of the family. It had a very high cultural as well as emotional values. It linked to the generations and the earlier generations. It represented the past as it was not only hand made but it also contained scraps of dresses that was worn by the grandmother and even great grandmother and a piece of uniform worn by great grandfather who served in the army.

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And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's unifotm that he wore in the Civil War. (Walker 5) Therefore, the quilts act as a symbol of the family’s heritage, which is why mama struggles with giving them away to Dee. It is as if Mama would be getting rid of her heritage, and everything she has ever known.

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However, quilts are made to be used to keep warm, not presented as an artifact. To Mama, these show her family history and she wants to use them accordingly, but to Dee, they represent her heritage and ethnicity in a very superficial way.

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Dee views the quilt as the most important thing in the household to her. She does not pay as much attention to the other artifacts as she does the quilts. Explaining that these quilts were handmade by her grandmother, she expresses how she does not want any other quilt. The quilts are the most important artifact to Dee. Recognizing the significance of the quilts, Dee explains, “these are all pieces of dresses grandma used to wear.”

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She admires Dee's education and her desire to learn about her ancestors, but she is also aware of Dee's hatred for her family's way of life. Dee's hatred takes away from the true meanings of the quilts because those quilts represent their family's way of life. A life of not wasting dirty or “old clothes” but repurposing them into something beautiful and useful (Walker, 1973, para. 62). Then when it comes to Maggie, Mama feels a close bond with Maggie, who is more like herself in personality and interests. While also having learned the family traditions of learning skills that can be used around the house.

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Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” has three main characters, whose names are Mama, Dee, and Maggie. Dee is the oldest and Maggie is the youngest sister. The three of them lives together until Dee moves away to go to school. When Dee goes away for school, Mama and Maggie became gotten closer. Even though Maggie could not see or speak well, she would still try and attempt to read to Mama.

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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.

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