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The Symbolism Of The Quilt In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

479 Words2 Pages

Importantly, the quilts which Mama promised Maggie on her marriage were highly symbolic, representing the Mama's heritage of the past. The quilt was very significant thing in a way that it represented history; it included clothes that Dee's great grandma was wearing and pieces of grandpa uniforms that he used to wear during the civil war times. The guilt also signifies the experiences of Negro American civil war; as Walker indicated the importance of civil war legacies in her story. The quilt also complements to the idea of creative activities, which women created during generational lineages.
The story also describes Yard as a symbol of culture; which is produced by people. The yard is a wonderful seepage, where Mama’s repentances can be bypassed. For Mama and Maggie, the yard reminds safety, and a feeling of the strengths that they have to somehow control environment. …show more content…

When Dee put up with towards the end of the story, that Mama and Maggie are unable to understand their heritage, was basically wrong because Dee herself was not able to understand the real essence of heritage. When Maggie uses the guilt, she also appreciates her heritage, as it reminds her to ancestral lineage. Dee ponders that linking with a person's roots or heritage is a new thing. Dee was very much concerned about the future ownership of guilt; she also link the meaning of her name to that of guilt. Dee thinks that her name itself is a symbol of the oppressed; this is why she wants to change her name, so that she no longer is tied to her family. (Julie Moore,

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The family conflict ties up with the heritage because Dee thinks very little about the valued things in her family, but Maggie and Mama thinks highly of them and they want to put them to great

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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

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On the other hand, Dee is more outspoken and has a higher sense of fashion. When the story starts it seems the mother seems to favor Dee over Maggie, for example. As stated by Walker “Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks.”

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The author explains the importance of the quilts that is inherited from the generation of the Johnson's family. The quilts were handmade from pieces of scraps of dresses that symbolize the family's history. However, the older sister Dee wanted to take the quilt, but in the story, the mother promise to give Maggie the quilt when she gets married. Dee argues that her sister can not appreciate the quilt, but Maggie understands her heritage better than her sister. The quilts symbolize the relationship between women and the passing on of their

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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.

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This relates to the theme, the meaning of heritage, because in the end of the story, Dee believes that Mama and Maggie don’t understand heritage. “‘You just don’t understand,’ she said, as Maggie and I came out to the car” (Walker, 59). It is clearly Dee who doesn’t understand about heritage. Dee wasn’t able to get the quilts she wanted. Mama gave Maggie the quilts because she promised them to her.

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“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.

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Not only did Dee tell mama that Maggie would use them right she said it in a way that makes maggie look bad as if she were some crazy person when in reality she's using something that was made to be used as the title suggests. This does not sit right with mama which is why she fails, Mama knows that these quilts were made to be used this is why she doesn’t want to give them to Dee, she knows that maggie will use them as intended. This ties in with the theme because if Dee were to have the quilts she would be practicing the culture not to mention she knows how to quilt which will also carry on the culture, unlike Dee who doesn’t care nor knows how to quilt. The theme correlates with this situation perfectly because she is telling mama the opposite of the theme, that culture should be preserved because people like maggie will use and destroy meaningful pieces such as

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The Symbolism of Quilts in Everyday Use Alice Walker’s 1973 short story, Everyday Use, is about a rivalry between a mother and her daughter, and how they have a complicated relationship in regards to their heritage. The two characters named Mama who narrates the story and Dee who was the annoying, selfish one have a complex relationship. The issues both of them had was that Dee cares about her life and being smarter than caring about her family, and Mama became upset. Mama with the help of her sister, and mother has decided to create clothing called quilts. The quilts were handmade, used for bedding, and portrayed the artistry of the family.

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Ms. Johnson didn't have an education, yet she knew the value of the quilts and she didn’t let a few words from Dee change her decision of giving the quilts to Maggie. Dee leaves her mother’s house quite upset and tells her sister, “You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it” (Walker 12).

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Due to the many issues that have arised in the world, such as college debt, many students are becoming unsure whether or not to attend their desired school. As you can see, an “increasing number of borrowers are struggling to pay them off,” (Martin and Lehren 6), in regards to the students who are in college debt. Fortunately, there are three solutions that are provided in order to help prevent students in ending in college debt. For starters, people in a college or university, even years after they graduate, are filled with the stress that they are in college debt. For instance, Kelsey Griffith, a graduate from Ohio Northern University said, “I’m going to owe like $900 a month.”

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Finally, the most obvious and the most important element of fiction is symbolism, that Walker has used, and it is all about “Quilts”. These quilts not represent as an everyday use object but also symbolize their heritage and their family tradition. The quilts also portray the background of African-American culture throughout the tale and Walker’s use of quilts throughout the story also assists the readers to understand the difference in each character’s view about their heritage. The use of several sorts of patterns in the quilts symbolizes the history of Mama's family and the creativity they had. Mama wanted to give those quilts to Maggie after her marriage so that they had so much importance in them and so that she can utilize those quilts

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Mama sees that is a part of her heritage as well and wants the quilt to belong to her daughters, that she loves so much. But she would want the quilt to belong to one person that would treasure the quilt as much as she did and the rest of her descendants did. Alice Walker illustrates the differing views and wants the audience to see how much the quilt means and how much heritage and family should mean an individual whether they have "left the nest" or not. Alice Walker wants the audience to side with Maggie and Mama as the two of them value their family and the family valuable that Dee only sees as a trend statement or a new trend in her generation. The title, "Everyday Use", is important to the story as to how the quilt is seen for the characters and how the writer wants the reader to see it as well.

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With determined ambitions and education resulted in a lack of sensibility in heritage, history, and self identity, which only family can implement. Dee presents herself almost as a weird, intimidating individual foreign to what her family has ever known. The conflict that Mama and Maggie are confronted with is that Dee is does not care about anything but herself. When being rejected to have possession of the quilts Dee stated “But they’re priceless! She was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper.”.

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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.

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