My Family's Heritage Poem Analysis

783 Words4 Pages

For many, people hold objects within their lives as sentiments of greater value than price. Whether it be pictures, necklaces, or a father’s watch; there lies an emotional connection beyond the object’s materialistic presence in which people hold dear. Themes of reminiscence as well reverence are displayed throughout the poem by the use of imagery to further convey the character’s hope that the quilt will represent her family’s heritage just as her grandmothers did, alongside an ethos application of symbolism that further portrays as well connects the emotional links of generations, diversity, and values. The first theme of reminiscence is displayed by tone as well diction in which the author portrays that the quilt allows the woman to create a feeling of connection to her family 's past as well her own. The quilt allowed the woman to feel as though she could potentially “have good dreams for a hundred years,” as mentioned throughout lines twenty and twenty-one just as her Meema. In addition, by this memory the narrator begins to …show more content…

The quilt’s variety of colours conveys a link between the narrator’s multicultural family as well background. This idea is conveyed in lines fifteen through seventeen, “Six Van Dyke brown squares.. Mama’s cheeks.” Additionally, the colours of the quilt also play a role in being symbolism of the narrator’s family characteristics and love, such as in lines thirty-nine through forty, “of my father’s burnt umber pride, my mother’s ochre gentleness.” This concept is further presented in lines twenty-five and twenty-six, “Among her yellow sisters, their grandfather’s white family.” In lines eighteen through twenty, “Each square holds a sweet gum leaf.. Me into the silence,” the sweet gum leaf is symbolism for nostalgia. In a sense as well, the diction “caress me into the silence,” is symbolism for death in which the narrator is described still to remain