This short story first articulates the metaphor of quilting to represent the creative legacy that African Americans have inherited from their maternal ancestors. The central theme of the story concerns the way in which an individual understands his present life in relation to the traditions of his people and culture. Dee tells her mother and Maggie that they do not understand their “heritage,” because they plan to put “priceless” heirloom quilts to “everyday use.” The story makes clear that Dee is equally confused about the nature of her inheritance both from her immediate family and from the larger black tradition. The matter of Dees name provides a good example of this confusion. Evidently, Dee has chosen her new name (“Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”) to express solidarity with her African ancestors and to reject the oppression implied by the taking on of American names by black slaves. To her mother, the name “Dee” is symbolic of family unity; after all, she can trace it back to the time of the Civil War.
To the mother, these names are significant because they belong to particular beloved individuals. Dees confusion about the meaning of her heritage also emerges in her attitude toward the quilts and other household items. While she now rejects the names of her immediate ancestors, she eagerly values their old handmade goods, such as the hand-carved benches made for the table when the family could not afford to buy chairs. To Dee, artifacts such as the benches or the quilts are strictly aesthetic objects. It never occurs to her that they, too, are symbols of oppression: Her family made these things because they could not afford to buy them. Her admiration for them now seems to reflect a cultural trend toward valuing handmade objects, rather than any sincere interest in her “heritage.” After all, when she was offered a quilt before she went away to college, she rejected it as “old-fashioned, out of style.” Yet a careful reading of the story will show that Dee is not the only one confused about the heritage of the black woman in the rural South. Although the mother and Maggie are skeptical of Dee, they recognize the limitations of their own lives.
The Essay on Stolen Party Story Maggie Quilts
... values of Dee are questioned throughout the story. Dee is a child who is embarrassed of her mother and of her heritage. This family, the Johnsons, ... she didn't take the quilts that her mother had offered her; quilts that had been a great part of her family history. When she ... knew the history and value of those quilts and she knew how to quilt. Her mother defends Maggie by saying, "She can always ...
The mother has only a second-grade education and admits that she cannot imagine looking a strange white man in the eye. Maggie “knows she is not bright” and walks with a sidelong shuffle. Although their dispositions lead them to make the best of their lives, they admire Dees fierce pride even as they feel the force of her scorn. Taken as a whole, while the story clearly endorses the commonsense perspective of Dees mother over Dees affectations, it does not disdain Dees struggle to move beyond the limited world of her youth. Clearly, however, she has not yet arrived at a stage of self-understanding. Her mother and sister are ahead of her in that respect. The thematic richness of “Everyday Use” is made possible by the flexible, perceptive voice of the first-person narrator. It is the mothers point of view which permits the readers understanding of both Dee and Maggie.
Seen from a greater distance, both young women might seem stereotypicalone a smart but ruthless college girl, the other a sweet but ineffectual homebody. The mothers close scrutiny redeems Dee and Maggie, as characters, from banality. For example, Maggies shyness is explained in terms of the terrible fire she survived: “Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggies arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes. Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflected in them.” Ever since, “she has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle.” In Dees case, the reader learns that, as she was growing up the high demands she made of others tended to drive people away. She had few friends, and her one boyfriend “flew to marry a cheap city girl from a family of ignorant flashy people” after Dee “turned all her faultfinding power on him.” Her drive for a better life has cost Dee dearly, and her mothers commentary reveals that Dee, too, has scars, though they are less visible than Maggies. In addition to the skillful use of point of view, “Everyday Use” is enriched by Alice Walkers development of symbols.
The Essay on Everyday Change Dee Maggie Mother
... been promised to Maggie. Dee feels that Maggie is not worthy of the quilts because Maggie will surely put them to "everyday use", whereas Dee would display ... extreme fondness the two rural women have for the yard. Maggie's mother uses the word "comfortable" (88) to describe the yard and ... is glad to have moved on to a more civilized life. However, it also becomes evident that she is confused about ...
In particular, the contested quilts become symbolic of the storys theme; in a sense, they represent the past of the women in the family. Worked on by two generations, they contain bits of fabric from even earlier eras, including a scrap of a Civil War uniform worn by Great Grandpa Ezra. The debate over how the quilts should be treatedused or hung on the wallsummarizes the black womans dilemma about how to face the future. Can her life be seen as continuous with that of her ancestors? For Maggie, the answer is yes. Not only will she use the quilts, but also she will go on making moreshe has learned the skill from Grandma Dee. For Dee, at least for the present, the answer is no.
She would frame the quilts and hang them on the wall, distancing them from her present life and aspirations; to put them to everyday use would be to admit her status as a member of her old-fashioned family. Walker, Alice, Everyday Use, 1944, 1973
