Quilts In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

First, “Everyday Use”, helps us to better understand how Dee doesn’t appreciate her past by not respecting items from her family’s past. For Mama, Dee told her that the quilts were “old-fashioned, out of style” (7). It is worthy that this quote points out Dees thoughts about the items. Dee didn’t want the items until the “old-fashioned” came back into style. Dee sees the items as something to have, but not something to honor. She would rather use the items as decoration rather than everyday use. Also, we get to see Dees thoughts as she states, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts…She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use”, this helps us to understand Dees thoughts on how she views the quilts. Instead of respecting the way her family uses the quilts, she’d rather use them to hang up on a wall.

Dee thinks that since Maggie was taught how to make quilts that she doesn’t need or want them because she can make her own. But these quilts mean much more because they were made by hand by their grandmother and mother out of old clothing from different ancestors. Another item that Dee doesn’t appreciate is the churn that is very old and still in use. As Dee stats, “I can use the churn top as a counter piece for the alcove table”. She sees the pieces as a decoration and not as a valuable item that can produce food for the family. To me it sounds like Dee doesn’t respect the items Mama has. Dee wants to take the pieces from the butter churn even while its still producing and in use, which shows how she doesn’t put much value or importance on the items that Mama has kept over the years. The story tells us that Dee would rather see the items as pieces of art and fashion