The Century Quilt Summary

As the audience read the poem, it can be stated that the narrator is speaking to the audience about the significance of a particular quilt; she gives examples of its significance such as how the quilt impacted her childhood and gave her dreams and predictions of the future. The reader can infer that the theme of “The Century Quilt” is about hopes and dreams, as the narrator speaks about her dreams and her grandmother’s dreams in lines twenty-one through twenty-seven. The narrator states, “I think I’d have good dreams… under this quilt, as Meema must have... Dreamed she was a girl in Kentucky… Nodding at them when they met.”; also, it was mentioned in the twenty-fifth line that Meema’s family included “yellow sisters”. Clearly, the narrator comes from a background in which her ancestors immigrated to America, as their yellow complexion gives off their foreign characteristic. Because the quilt is Indian and the narrator is from a family who immigrated, the quilt is perhaps the only item the narrator’s grandmother has left from her birthplace. Therefore, making the quilt

In lines twenty-four through thirty-one, the narrator discusses of how her grandmother “must have… dreamed she was a girl again in Kentucky” and how her “father came home from the store… and all of the beautiful giggled and danced.” The grandmother is reminiscing her past before she immigrated and the quilt is all she has left from her past. The quilt brings back the memories she made as a child in her birthplace, symbolizing her childhood and happiness in her birthplace. Whenever the grandmother is underneath the quilt, she instantly has flashbacks from her childhood in her birthplace, giving her satisfaction of the past with the single item she has from