Everyday Use Imagery

All this repetition has this aim, and further, reveals the ideals of socioeconomic status. The connotations of her trying to see her heritage and feel it are different from the ideals of her mother; using the quilts for everyday

Family heritage plays a very important role in one’s life. One way families keep their heritage alive is through heirlooms. One example of an heirloom could be a quilt passed down from generation to generation. In the short stories, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “The Keeping Quilt” by Patricia Polacco, quilts play an important part in their family heritage. The quilt in both stories is used to document their past and how far they have came.

The ethnic and folk culture importance of Baba’s quilt is obvious and Watkins writes, “this quilt has got to stay in the family somewhere. It has got to tell the story.” Gloria Jean Watkins is able to identify the importance of her family’s ethnic and folk culture, through the quilt. This is an example of exactly what this generation is not doing! The cultural gap is prevalent due to extensive use of technology.

In Marilyn Nelson Waniek’s poem “The Century Quilt” an abundance of imagery, positive connotation, flashbacks, and a creative structure is used to develop the complex themes and ideas represented in the poem. These devices create a meaningful and concise story of the values each family may have, and the importance to keep these values alive. In order to convey the importance of family value or in this case the quilt. Waniek describes the quilt having “Six Van Dyke brown squares, two white ones, and one square the yellow brown of mama’s cheeks.”

Throughout “The century quilt” by Marilyn Nelson, she exaggerates her use of literary devices to provide a story of a family heirloom. The poem is based on a mixed family consisting on Native Americans and Americans that passed down a quilt to the oldest grandchild. Nelson includes theme, symbolism and literary devices to rely this powerful story. Majority of the time, every family has some type of heirloom that is passed down. In this poem, the heirloom is a guilt passed down to the oldest grandchild from their grandmother.

Mama ultimately decides that she wants to keep the quilts for their sentimental value and to pass them down to future generations. Mama makes an effort to counteroffer and convince Dee to take some other quilts that have less sentimental value. Dee declines, “No, I don't want those. They are stitched around the borders by machine,” and instead asks for “pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear,” (Walker 320). Her decision to keep them symbolizes her desire to maintain the family’s traditions and protect their history.

Annotated Bibliography Baker, Houston A., and Charlotte Pierce-Baker. " Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker's" Everyday Use". " The Southern Review 21.3 (1985): 706. The two writers use symbolism to convey the message in that it is an indication of fullness to stand as a sign of condemnation or rather the act of judging, the quilter patch is a fragment. A patch may have the capability of a showing off some level poverty.

The author’s intent in “Everyday Use” is show the importance of heritage and the role that education plays in the understanding of heritage. The first and last sentence of the story takes place in the yard of their house. This is a place where Mama and Maggie feel safest and most at home. It is described as being a comfortable extension of the living room, and it protects and shelters them from the outside world. Dee no longer lives at home and is out getting an education and experiencing the world.

The narrator and her children feel the quilts symbolize generations of war and poverty that their family endured over the years. On the other hand, not all family members share the same appreciation for the quilts. Adopting a different culture after going to college the oldest daughter, Dee, appreciates the quilt for being part of her legacy. She can't believe that the quilt was handmade. "These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear.

Maggie uses the quilts to honor their memory because she and her mother view the quilts for daily use. On the other hand, Dee’s view on culture is seldomly influenced by her experiences. This is because when the house burnt down Dee watched it be engulfed with flames, and she hated the house so much she could care less if it burnt down. Dee detests everything about her family’s culture. One way she despised it was by finding the meaning of her culture that does not relate to her family.

Everyday Use Literary Analysis “Maggie will be nervous until her sister goes. ”(Pg.50 line7) This is quote from the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker. The story revolves around a girl called Dee, her mom and sister Maggie. They have different opinions on different subjects especially relating to heritage.

Acosta explains that the common and little things are what make quilts special in many ways. The items that make up the quilt, have memories attached meaning. These memories can not be taught, they can only be experienced. The story, “Everyday Use” displays a mother with her two daughters in the middle of a dilemma.

As she looks at her quilts, Mama remembers that a certain patch came from her grandfather's paisley shirts, that some pieces came from dresses that Grandma Dee wore 50 years earlier, and even that there was a very small piece of her great-grandfather's Civil War uniform. From this, we can all see how and why they mean so much to her. To Dee, the quilts are a quaint "primitive" art. To Mama and Maggie, they represent more than that. They are family memories, very personal and very special mementos of loved ones who are gone.

She loves them for the way they look. Mama, on the other hand, views the things from her mother as artifacts. She loves the items more than how they look. She admires the quilts because of their everyday use. Transformations take place between these characters.

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.