ipl-logo

Essay On My Mother Pieced Quilts

424 Words2 Pages

Quilt Essay
Family memories not only hold us together during the tough times but also provide a foundation especially when enhanced by a mother's love. Some people are able to appreciate their family heritage, while others do not recognize or take it for granted. In the poem "My Mother Pieced Quilts" by Teresa Acosta and the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, both authors use figurative language and imagery to establish the quilt as a symbol for a mother's love and respecting family heritage to illustrate their themes.
In her poem Teresa Acosta displays the quilt as a symbol for the mother's love. The narrator is reminiscing over the choices her mother made on the material to use on the quilt, one being the "somber black silk [she] wore to grandmother's funeral" (38). The mother's choice of this fabric is to …show more content…

In "Everyday Use" Walker establishes the symbol as respect for family heritage. The author shows that Dee was being ungrateful and shocked that her mother would give the quilts to Maggie instead of her. "She gasped like a bee had stung her" (64). This simile portrays that Dee has disrespected not only her mother but her heritage. She acts this way because this is the first time she did not get what she wanted. Another way Walker shows how Dee is hateful is when she wants her mom to be something she is not. "In real life I am a large, big boned woman, with strong, man looking hands" (60). The imagery in this quote shows how the mother feels about herself and this is not what Dee wants her to look or be like.
The poem and short story use both, figurative language and imagery to reveal the quilt as a symbol for a mother's love and family heritage. Acosta shows how the quilts have love built into them. While Walker displays how Dee is disrespectful towards her family heritage. Being able to recognize the love from others or your heritage can be difficult at times, but you should never take it for

Show More
Related

Similarities And Differences In My Mother Pieced Quilts By Dolly Parton

584 Words | 3 Pages

In “My Mother Pieced Quilts” written by Teresa Palomo Acosta and “Coat of Many Colors,” written by Dolly Parton, There are similarities and differences. Focusing on the speaker’s relationships with their mothers. In Acosta’s poem, she states, whether to put the lilac purple of easter against the / red plaid of winter-going-into-spring / whether to mix a yellow with blue and white and paint / the corpus Christi noon when my father held your hand / whether to shape a five-point star from the / somber black silk you wore to grandmother's funeral. However in the poem, Parton sings, And how my momma put the rags to use / There were rags of many colors / Every piece was small /

Read More

Analysis Of The Century Quilt By Marilyn Nelson Waniek

906 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem The Century Quilt, by Marilyn Nelson Waniek, the speaker expresses the deeper meaning by presenting a story about a quilt that has been passed down through the family. She continues to look back and express her family history though the memories as well as the passing on of the quilt to future generations. The quilt contains multiple meanings such as, her heritage and identity and even the diversity within family. As an author, she knows that to get this message across, it requires more than a simple story or memory, but also provide detailed imagery in which the reader will gain an insight to how meaningful and impactful this quilt is. The intensity in which the speaker describes this undertaking and the appreciation she feels

Read More

Marilyn Nelson Waniek's The Century Quilt

458 Words | 2 Pages

In Marilyn Nelson Waniek's "The Century Quilt" there is a diverse and loving home, and a sure symbol of generations of a family and childhood within the blanket. Through warm imagery and reminiscent tone, the measure of this quilt to Waniek's life is illustrated as a profound connection and admiration of her family and a nostalgic escape. The color illuminated imagery draws a relationship between family and love through the quilt. "

Read More

The Century Quilt Analysis

599 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Alice Walker Everyday Use Characterization

390 Words | 2 Pages

These differences cause tension to wear on family relationships, ultimately causing Dee to leave in anger. Walker uses characterization, contrast, and imagery to portray Dee and Mama’s relationship, and that mother-daughter relations are not always as the parties wish them to be. Mama and Dee are characterized by their appearances, thoughts, and actions. Mama describes herself as stout, broad boned, and man-handed. Mama is described as somewhat inferior to her daughter, whose “humor…erupted like bubbles

Read More

My Mother Pieced Quilts

429 Words | 2 Pages

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,”...

Read More

Analysis Of The Century Quilt By Marilyn Nelson Waniek

779 Words | 4 Pages

In “The Century Quilt”, Marilyn Nelson Waniek, portrays a deep, complex meaning through a quilt that the speaker finds her identity in. Waniek shows the reader the speakers past, present, and future through memories with her family and aspirations stitched into the quilt. These are conveyed through the literacy devices of imagery, structure, and tone. The imagery within the poem is used to clearly show how the quilt is linked to each family member, showing how important family is to the speaker.

Read More

Everyday Use Transformation

809 Words | 4 Pages

I’d wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much.” This shows that Dee didn’t care much for her heritage, because she seemed so thrilled that the house had burned down. The way she reacted to the house burning shows that she didn’t care for her mother or

Read More

The Century Quilt

902 Words | 4 Pages

She mentions different family members along with their skin color and describes short memories of each of them. Referring back to the quilt, the speaker elucidates how symbolically the quilt and her family tie together. To organize the poem, she structures

Read More

Idealism And Pragmatism In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

1032 Words | 5 Pages

This shows, unlike her sister Maggie, Dee’s perception of the quilts are strictly aesthetic and artistic pieces that reflect African Heritage. Dee never considers they may represent oppression themselves and it makes her seem as though she wants them solely just to show off. In addition, Ross goes on to state, “Her admiration for them now seems to reflect a cultural trend toward valuing handmade objects, rather than any sincere interest in her “heritage.” After all, when she was offered a quilt before she went away to college, she rejected it as “old-fashioned, out of style” (Ross 1-2).

Read More

Symbols In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

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.

Read More

The Meaning Of Heritage In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

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.

Read More

Characterization In Everyday Use

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

Read More

Symbolism In 'Everyday Use' By Alice Walker

1561 Words | 7 Pages

(Walker 721) Dee can’t understand the true meaning and significance of her name, passed along through four generations; therefore she doesn’t understand the significance of the quilts. The quilts are a symbol of pride and struggle and these objects have a value that Dee will never

Read More

Womanism In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

1029 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Essay On My Mother Pieced Quilts

Related Topics

Open Document