Maggie’s ideas are limited because she only knows about her family’s history, but she has no clue about African-American history. In addition, Maggie stopped going to school, so she does not have the same knowledge and education that Dee has in the story. Throughout the story, Mama talks about how Dee is always making her and Maggie listen to her while she reads to them, which makes Maggie and Mama uninterested when Dee comes to visit. As a matter of fact, Dee’s ideas are limited as well because of how she is not aware of how much history is involved in her family and the quilts. Both characters seem to have differences when it comes to having an education because Dee is the one that went away to college and got the education that she always wanted. Maggie never wanted to go to school because she knew she had to stay with Mama and live the rest of her life at home. …show more content…
Maggie sees the quilts as two blankets that are sentimental to her, but she will always remember the people that made the quilts so special to learn about.
She hears that Dee tells Mama that she is going to put the quilts to “everyday use”, but she does not seem too upset about it. In addition, Maggie does not seem too upset because she knows she can make another quilt. Maggie has been with Mama her entire life, and has already learned how to quilt from Mama, her grandmother, and Aunt Dee. An indication in the story is, “I can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts”(321). Maggie knows the history that the quilts have and Dee does not understand the family, as Maggie
does. Dee sees the quilts as a symbol of her heritage that should be seen in a museum. Dee only learned their heritage from an educational perspective, not from the family’s perspective. Dee wants to keep the quilts to keep them away from Maggie and to show how important those quilts is to their African-American history that goes back to the Civil War. Furthermore, Dee’s interpretation of the quilts are that the quilts are “priceless” and she would love to hang them. Mama is told by Dee that she does not understand her heritage, but Dee does not understand her own heritage as well. Another indication in the story is, “But they’re priceless! she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!”(320). In fact, Dee does understand the family’s history, but she does not have the same interpretation as Maggie because they both learned about it in two different settings. Finally, based on both characters and their interpretations about the quilts, Maggie is the one that is correct because the quilts represent their entire family and Maggie is able to become part of the family’s history by staying with Mama. Dee started to drift away from the family, but she did come back to visit and let the family know about her point of view of the history of the family. Dee’s reason to come back was to take the quilts and bring it back home to her because she has not learned the skill to make another quilt. Maggie already learned how to make a quilt because she stayed with Mama all these years when Dee was off to college.
...made for, she no longer offers much imagery to the reader. The story comes to an end as the mother reminds Dee that she was once offered the quilts and refused them because she thought they were "old fashioned and out of style" (880). She also turns the table on Dee by snatching the quilts out of Dee's hands and dumping them into Maggie's lap. She tells Dee to get a couple of the other quilts, and with that said, Dee storms out.
... attempts to change the way Mama and Maggie perceive tradition by using the quilts as a wall display. Mama refuses to allow it, Dee was offered the quilts when she was in college and didn’t want them at that time. Mama gives the quilts to Maggie as her wedding gift to be used every day as they were intended, knowing how much Maggie appreciates them. I agree with Mama and Maggie for keeping family memories and objects in daily use. It is important to maintain your family history in your everyday life to preserve those special memories.
Many people show their appreciation for things in different ways. Dee appreciates the quilt for being her heritage. She can't express enough how she feels about it. She can't even imagine that the quilt was hand made with every stitch stroked in and out. As for Maggie, Dee believes she can't appreciate the quilt in the same way she can. "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts." Instead, she thinks that Maggie will use the quilt for about 5 or so years and it will turn into a rag. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." "Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they'd be in rags. Less than that!" Dee doesn't feel Maggie deserves the quilt.
When two children are brought up by the same parent in the same environment, one might logically conclude that these children will be very similar, or at least have comparable qualities. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," however, this is not the case. The only thing Maggie and Dee share in common is the fact that they were both raised by the same woman in the same home. They differ in appearance, personality, and ideas that concern the family artifacts.
The quilts were pieced together by Mama, Grandma Dee, and Big Dee symbolizing a long line of relatives. The quilts made from scraps of dresses worn by Grandma Dee, Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts, and Great Grandpa Ezra’s Civil War uniform represented the family heritage and values, and had been promised to Mama to Maggie when she married. However, Dee does not understand the love put into the making of the quilts, neither does she understand the significance of the quilts as part of her family heritage. It is evident she does not understand the significance of the quilt, having been offered one when went away to college declaring them “as old-fashioned” and “out of style”. She does not care about the value of the quilts to her family, rather she sees it as a work of art, valuable as an African heritage but not as a family heirloom. She wants the quilts because they are handmade, not stitched with around the borders. She tells Mama, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!... She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use… But, they’re priceless!.. Maggie would put them on her the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!” (317). The quilt signifies the family pride and history, which is important to Mama. She makes the decision to give the quilt to Maggie who will appreciate it more than Dee, to whom she says, “God knows I been saving ‘em for long enough with
The main objects of topic throughout the story are the quilts that symbolize the African American Woman’s history. Susan Farrell, a critic of many short stories, describes the everyday lives of African American Women by saying “weaving and sewing has often been mandatory labor, women have historically endowed their work with special meanings and significance” and have now embraced this as a part of their culture. The two quilts that Dee wanted “had been pieced together by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me [Mother] had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them” (par. 55) showing that these quilts were more valuable as memories than they were just blankets. The fabrics in the quilts “were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the piece of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War” (par. 55) putting forth more evidence that these are not just scraps, but have become pieces of family history. The q...
To begin with, a quilt is defined as a “coverlet made of scrapes and fragments stitched together to form a pattern” (Webster). The quilt in “Everyday Use” was made by Grandma Dee, Big Dee, and Mama from scraps of dresses and shirts and is part of Grandpa’s Civil War uniform. It is filled with memories and was hand stitched by the family. Mama suggests that Dee take other ones, but Dee rejects the offer because they were “stitched by machine”(Walker, p.114) and the old ones were done by hand. Mama says that she had promised them to Maggie.
Mama asks, "What happened to Dee?"(488) Mama gets her answer. Dee makes her point by saying, "She 's dead." She explains that she is no longer defined by her previous identify as Dee. "I couldn 't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me."(488). Mama is bothered by this because Dee was named after her Aunt Dicie, who was named after her grandma, who was named after her mother. Dee has distanced herself even further from her family and heritage. She 's more focused on herself. She 's blindsided by the fact those possessions don’t have to do with who she was or who she 's becoming. When Dee goes to ask for the quilts she 's manipulative about it, "Mama," Wangero said sweet as a bird. "Can I have these old quilts?" (490) When she learns that Mama has been saving them for Maggie she 's outraged and explains that Maggie couldn 't appreciate the quilts, she 'd use them for what they were actually intended for. It 's ironic that Dee is asking Mama for the quilts since she before declined them. "I didn 't want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style."(490). Dee’s temper rises and claims that the quilts are priceless, seeing them as works of art whereas Mama sees them as practical value. It 's again mentioned that Maggie would use them for their true intent. "Maggie would put them on the bed in
Did you realize that in many family, there is always one child who is so different from the other children? They are not only different from appearance, but also different from many aspects. In Alice Walker's "Everyday use", Walker tells us about her two daughters, Dee and Maggie, are raised by the same parent under the same environment, but turned out as two totally different persons due to many reasons.
The differences in attitude that Dee and Maggie portray about their heritage are seen early in the story. When the family's house burned down ten or twelve years ago, Maggie was deeply affected by the tragedy of losing her home where she grew up. As her mother describes, "She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground" (409). Dee, on the other hand, had hated the house. Her mother had wanted to ask her, "Why don't you dance around the ashes?" (409). Dee did not hold any significance in the home where she had grown up. In her confusion about her heritage, it was just a house to her.
...round behind, when she decided to change her name she broke a pattern and a symbol that meant a lot to her family, and when she tried to define what exactly a quilt or any aftifact as a matter fact should be used she made it look like her mother and sister really didn’t know anything or at least not as much as she though. When she told her sister to make something of herself and that Maggie might not be something big at all because of the way she lived it showed that Dee was embarrassed or at least trying to not look but on how she was raised. Dee's decisions to move, to change her name, to not know how to quilt, an important task her whole family including Maggie knew how to do, and failure to be interested in the actual people who made these artifacts are all good points in proving Dee's lack of desire to carry on her family's heritage, to be proud of her roots.
Quilts symbolize a family’s heritage. Maggie adheres the tradition by learning how to quilt from her grandmother and by sewing her own quilts. Maggie also puts her grandmother’s quilts into everyday use. Therefore, when Dee covets the family’s heirloom, wanting to take her grandmother’s hand-stitched quilts away for decoration, Mama gives the quilts to Maggie. Mama believes that Maggie will continually engage with and build upon the family’s history by using the quilts daily rather than distance herself from
When Dee finds out that her mama promise to give the quilts to her sister, Dee gets very angry and says that she deserves the quilts more than Maggie because Maggie would not take care of them like she would. Dee feels that she can value and treasure heritage more than her sister Maggie. Dee does what she wants, whenever she wants and she will not accept the word no for any answer. “She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.” Maggie is used to never getting anything. Throughout the entire story, it says that Maggie gives up many things so Dee can have what she needs or
The superficial Wangero, however, wants nothing from the quilt but to “ hang [it]”(72), just for aesthetic value. Maggie is not into the artifacts which Dee is dying for. She is into the people who created the artifacts, her ancestors, those people whose clothes had been cut off to make the quilt. Here let’s not forget that when mama offered the quilt to Dee (Wangero) when she went away to college she declined the offer by saying “they are old fashioned, out of
The traditional society condemns men to bread-wining responsibilities. However, with modernity, comes the change in roles. Women have an equal share in role taking. The modern society not only permits women but also gives them an opportunity to provide for their families among other responsibilities. However, this drastic change is a factor towards competition, a need for supremacy or pride. Therefore, regardless of their different struggles, conflicts or challenges they face, every woman has a zeal towards success. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the narrator’s extensive description of her daughters’ difference in character and personality clearly shows that she is biased towards Maggie, who is more inclined to support her cultural beliefs