Tuesday, May 19, 2015

What is the significance of the quilts in "Everyday Use"?

The
differing ways in which Dee and Mama view the quilts is representative of their difference of
opinion overall in this story about what constitutes African American, and family, heritage. To
Mama and Maggie, the quilts are living history. Although Maggie says, "I can remember
Grandma Dee without the quilts," the quilts are composed of her grandmother's dresses, and
pieces of her mother's dresses, and uniforms from the Civil War, and were
sewn by hand. They were made to be used, and for Maggie, to receive these quilts upon her
marriage and put them to "everyday use" would represent a rite of passage as she
becomes the next in a line of Johnson women, part of a family heritage that is not something of
the past.

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