Symbolism In My Mother Pieced Quilts

Us as the World

How does one represent their culture consistently? Culture is a person’s background and beliefs. Culture is very important for a family’s heritage. One should follow their culture and heritage. In the three texts, “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, “My Mother Pieced Quilts,” by Teresa Palomo Acosta, and “An Indian Fathers Plea,” by Robert Lake; represents culture informs the way one views the world and others.

“An Indian Fathers Plea,” by Robert Lake is about a father whose child gets called slow because he was raised the traditional way, since he is from an Indian tribe. The subject of the first quote is how the child was brought into this world. The father explains, “As his first introduction into this world, he was bonded to his mother to his mother and to the mother earth in a traditional native childbirth ceremony” (Lake 75). There is more to learning than just understanding the basics, “This kind of learning goes beyond the basics or distinguishing the differences between rough and smooth, sharp and round, hard and soft, black and white, similarities and extremes” (Lake 76). This quote is explaining that there is more to learning than “the basics” culture should be included in a child’s learning. Through the acts of Wind-Wolf and Medicine

Grizzlybear, shows the reader how culture can consistently affect the way one views the world.
In the second text, “My Mother Pieced Quilts” by Teresa Paloma Acosta, culture is represented consistently.

The quilts symbolize the speaker’s culture when she says “knotted with love / the quilts sing on” (Acosta line 56-57). This quote is significant because it states that the quilts will continue to represent the speaker’s culture and reveal her memories. The floor symbolizes her culture as a working place. The speaker says “In the evenings you sat at your canvas / - our cracked linoleum floor, the drawing board” (Acosta lines 28-29). This quote is significant because it shows that the mother used the floor as her working space. The author shows her culture through quilts and shows that in her

writings.
“Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker is being used in this body paragraph to show how one’s culture is being represented consistently. The reader can assume that the characters in the story valued their culture, even though they had few objects to remember their ancestors. The narrator states, “It is not just a yard, it is an extended living room” (Walker 58). This quote is significant because the characters would rather be outside enjoying their yard because their real living room may not be as comforting as their yard. In the story the characters use sentimental objects such as quilts to show that their culture is being represented consistently. The narrator states, “I can remember Grandpa Dee without the quilts” (Walker 65). The significance of this quote is that the character will consistently be reminded of her grandpa by the presents of the quilts. While some people feel that culture can be represented consistently others would differ. An example of culture not being show consistently would be watching the news or reading the newspaper.
Therefore, the three texts reveal a mental picture of how one views the world through culture and their heritage. People are like their own miniature world with their own perspective. Even though these perspectives are their own, they’ve been affected by the world around them. Blinded by are perspectives, are we the world or is the world us?