Quilting Family Histories Essay Example

the milk churn top, the dasher and some quilts, especially those made my hand by their grandmother.  However, Mama says that she has already promised the quilts to Maggie as gifts for her wedding day.  To this, Dee/Wangero replies that Maggie will only put the quilts to “everyday use.

” She, on the other hand, claims that she knows how to use the quilts to their maximum potential; she proposes to hang them as symbols of pride for their heritage.  Maggie, who wants to appease the situation, decides to let Dee/Wangero have the quilts. Nevertheless, Mama decides to give Dee a few quilts but leaves most to Maggie.  Dee and her husband/boyfriend/companion leaves with the haughty thought that they know better but Maggie and Mama cannot understand their lofty ideas.The main characters are Mama, Dee and Maggie.  Dee’s companion, Hakim-a-Barber, is provided as a supporting character that will better illustrate the group that the newly-named Wangero is with.

  He is portrayed as a man after Dee’s own heart.  Though a self-professed Moslem who avoids pork, he does not take part in farming and raising cattle.  This suggests that both Hakim-a-Barber and Wangero are affected and phony; they only take bits of a certain image, but not all. Dee and Maggie are not just two sisters who are complete opposites of each other, but are also symbols of two different groups of people.Dee is created by Walker to represent the Black movement, which is usually made up of beautiful black people who are “aggressive and vocal about their demands”.  They also look down on other African Americans who they thought to be resigned to a life that

is influenced by their oppressors.

  Like Dee, African-Americans who are part of the Black movement, strive to return to pure African culture, a culture that they thought to be untainted by their slavery in the Americas.  (White) Visiting her mother and her sister has ulterior motives as well.  She wants to obtain evidences of their culture, which she can wave as flags of her rebirth as a pure African woman.  Upon her arrival, she takes pictures of the house, which according to her mother’s narration, she hates.“She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice.

She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serf' oust way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand.” (Walker)Mama describes her daughter Dee as patronizing and used to getting her way.  She believes in her intellectual sophistication, and tries to force her ideals on her family.  Walker has created Dee’s character to “demonstrate misguided Black pride.

” (White)Maggie represents the African slaves who only know how to say “yes sir”.  They are very submissive not just to an order, but also to their fate.  Maggie represents the people who feel inferior and are willing to please.  Because of this unwillingness to be like the people promoting the Black movement, Dee barely speaks to her sister.

  Dee thinks of her as “backward” and one who cannot appreciate the quilts made by their ancestors.  Maggie is also

described as badly burned.  This is said to be representative of the age old scars left by African slavery.  (White)  Although seemingly unhelpful in the crusade to defend their heritage, Maggie recognizes and appreciates their culture albeit in a more silent way.

  Her connection is more emotional as she concedes the quilts to her sister due to her belief that she says that "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts." (Walker)Mama is caught in the middle.  She admires her daughter Dee’s outspokenness and determination, but she recognizes the selfish motivation under the lofty ideals.  She also believes in passing on tradition even if it is believed to be spoiled by slavery.  She interprets it only as passing on tradition from their ancestors, and she finds it disrespectful to just reject what her ancestors used to follow.

(White)  On the other hand, she used to be ashamed of her daughter, Maggie but she only fully understands and appreciates her in the end.  Her shame is evident when she compares her daughter to a “lame animal.” (Walker) Mama does try to understand Dee, even by referring to her sometimes as “Wangero” but reverting to “Dee” most of the times.The setting of the story further reinforces the symbolism in the characters.“Everyday Use” is set in the late ‘60s or in the early ‘70s.

This was a time when African Americans were struggling to define their personal identities in cultural terms.  The term “Negro” had been recently removed, and had been replaced with “Black.” There was “Black Power”, “Black Nationalism” and “Black Pride.” Many Blacks wanted to rediscover their African roots, and were ready to reject and deny

their American heritage, which was filled with stories of pain and injustice.” (White)The idea of the Black movement can only be clear within the period of the late ‘60s to the early ‘70s.  The story is located in one place only, the home where Mama and Maggie still stays, but Dee has left long ago to transform into Wangero.

  The author may have wished to emphasize Mama and Maggie’s persistence to stay in touch with both their American and African heritage, however difficult it may be.“I have deliberately turned my back on the house. It is three rooms, just like the one that burned, except the roof is tin; they don't make shingle roofs any more. There are no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides, like the portholes in a ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutters up on the outside. This house is in a pasture, too, like the other one. No doubt when Dee sees it she will want to tear it down”.

(Walker)The present home is similar to the house before the fire, which may suggest sticking to a culture that they are born to.  Moreover, Dee sees the house as a symbol of that culture, so she wants to tear it down the way she tries to tear away from herself her American heritage.  The short story happens in one day; Mama has only one day to figure out Maggie’s worth and fully recognize Dee’s selfishness.  This one day is a big contrast to the hundreds of years of enslavement.Alice Walker’s short story is rife with symbolism.  The people themselves are symbols.

  The

location is more than just a place where the events happen, and the time period in which they happen is the key to the symbols.  The time frame provides the necessary context in which the readers can perceive the story as more than a conflicted family dealing with differences in points of view.  Central to Mama’s recognition of Maggie’s inner character are the quilts.  The quilts here are not just heirlooms that two sisters are fighting over.  They are symbols of a culture that thrives from generation to generation, and are keys to how each of those generations regards them.

   Both Mama and Maggie see them as a “bond of women of several generations.” (White)  Dee thinks differently.  She wants them hung on a wall as an active demonstration of love for her African heritage.  This will strengthen her new ‘back to Africa” image with her long dress, jewelry and African Moslem husband or boyfriend.  Walker communicates her preference of art being used as a “living, breathing part of the culture it arose from, rather than a frozen timepiece to be observed from a distance.” (Georgia Perimeter College)  The quilts are meant to be for everyday use despite Wangero’s other designs on them; she is intellectually interested in the quilts because of their “aesthetic and financial value.

”  It is indeed ironic that Dee is dismayed that the quilts being gifted to Maggie may mean that they will be put to “everyday use” when in fact her ancestors have meant them to be put to use that way.Although there is irony in Dee’s perception of how to put quilts to use, a major irony used in

the story is Dee herself appearing to be the one who truly understands her heritage.  It is Maggie who turns out to have a mature understanding of their culture.  She sees the quilts’ connection to her family, while Dee can only see a means to “promote” Black power, with only a superficial understanding of what the quilts are for.  She has fully turned her back on her family; her visit has the purpose of taking possession of the quilts.  Wangero does not understand that turning her back on her family means turning her back on her real heritage as well.

  Maggie may not have Dee’s educational advantage, but she has a better understanding of their culture though she herself may not be aware of it.People may come from the same culture, and in the case of this short story, from the same family, but each person is an individual that can form his or her own interpretation of a certain idea.  “Everyday Use” is not just about the contemplation of the proper use of family quilts, but a pure understanding of the relationship of family, culture and heritage.  When the personal interpretations of each of the family members are presented, the readers are given points of view that depend on each of the character’s personalities and motivations.