Aunt Ida Pieces A Quilt: Poem Analysis

At the end of the second paragraph there is a stanza break from the word “princesses” to “Now I’ve found a quilt” from line 13. This stanza break is significant because it shows the change of tone of the speaker. In the first paragraph one can see a caring tone. Shown when the speaker says “Meema” which shows that the speaker must have really cared for their grandmother in order to call them such a caring name. Then in paragraph 2 there is a change of tone to excitement, shown in line line 14 when it says “ I’d like to die under”. The speaker goes from talking about childhood memories to talking about how she has now so easily traded the old blanket for this new Indian

The poem, “The Century Quilt”, by Sarah Mary Taylor demonstrates the meaning of The Century Quilt through the use of tone, imagery and symbolism. This complex quilt has a way of bringing family together through means of remembrance, as the quilt will be passed on and on.

The intriguing texts, “My Mother Pieced Quilts” by Teresa Palomo Acosta, and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker contain two main ideas that explain how everyone’s culture has a direct influence on the way that we view the world. In other words, each of our backgrounds are full of experiences and knowledge, and we use what we know in every aspect in life. Specifically, Acosta expressed in her poem, “... how the thread darted in and out / galloping along the frayed edges, tucking them in / as you did us at night.” This passage is suggesting when the author remembers her mother mother making quilts, she remembers the memories that she associated with the quilts, making the quilts have a special meaning to her and her culture growing up. Additionally, Walker had a similar idea in her narrative about quilts but she includes another example where she writes,”... you could see where thumbs

Take Aunt Dice and Mama, for example. They are well bonded and we can tell this because of the quilts they made together. Dee and Maggie on the other hand, are opposites. No words are said between them. But, between Mama and Dee, readers can tell that they have a bad relationship, because Dee has no idea on where she or her family came from.The quilts are the main symbol for the reason that each character has different views on them and their meaning, just like the readers.Near the end, the mother needs to choose whom to give the quilts to, to keep. Both of them have quilts with opposite views on what their use will be. Dee only wants to just hang them up, while Maggie wants to appreciate their appearance. I conclude that Alice Walker wanted Maggie to have the quilts because she thinks would actually mean something. 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. To Mama and Maggie, they represent more than that. They are

“the quilts are the central symbol of the story representing the connectedness of history and intergenerational tries of the family” (“everyday use”). This means that the quilts mean heritage and remind the daughters of grand mom dee. The quilts are fought over at the end of the story because of the meaning of them. One daughter wants them for everyday use and one wants them just to have them because it means heritage to her. The mother at the end of the story agrees that they should be used for everyday use. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. “she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (walker). This shows that dee really wants the quilts but not for the reason her mother wants. Mrs. Johnson ends up giving Maggie the quilts for the right

The poem and short story use both, figurative language and imagery to reveal the quilt as a symbol for a mother's love and family heritage. Acosta shows how the quilts have love built into them. While Walker displays how Dee is disrespectful towards her family heritage. Being able to recognize the love from others or your heritage can be difficult at times, but you should never take it for

Lastly, the speaker uses some hyperboles in this poem to show the importance of a sense of identity and how this shapes our lives. One such hyperbole was “Now I’ve found a quilt I’d like to die under” which shows she’s found her identity and the thing she wants to be defined by (family and heritage.) Another was, “I’d have good dreams for a hundred years under this quilt,” showing her willingness to embrace her identity and be proud of her family and heritage. This shows how much she is attached to her identity and how much she believes in

Family is the fundamental building block of all societies. It is all inclusive across generations and cultures. Based on the epic poem The Odyssey and current families today, we see that family is where we learn to love ourselves and each other, to bear one another’s burdens, to find meaning in our life and to give purpose to other’s lives, and to feel the value of being part of something greater than ourselves. Family is where we experience our biggest triumphs, deepest vulnerabilities, and where we have the greatest potential to do good.

In the short stories we have read there have been numerous themes. The impact of tradition, the value of heritage, the importance of family, the divide between social classes, and the presence of love are all ideas that can be found in the stories we have read. Short stories have managed to encapture the importance and true meaning of life in just a few sentences by imposing on the readers themes we can all relate to. A common theme presented in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” is the power of knowledge and education.

The quilt’s variety of colours conveys a link between the narrator’s multicultural family as well background. This idea is conveyed in lines fifteen through seventeen, “Six Van Dyke brown squares.. Mama’s cheeks.” Additionally, the colours of the quilt also play a role in being symbolism of the narrator’s family characteristics and love, such as in lines thirty-nine through forty, “of my father’s burnt umber pride, my mother’s ochre gentleness.” This concept is further presented in lines twenty-five and twenty-six, “Among her yellow sisters, their grandfather’s white family.” In lines eighteen through twenty, “Each square holds a sweet gum leaf.. Me into the silence,” the sweet gum leaf is symbolism for nostalgia. In a sense as well, the diction “caress me into the silence,” is symbolism for death in which the narrator is described still to remain

I define my family more like Robert Hayden than Linda Hogan; I define my family as my mother, my sister, my grandparents, and house where I grew up. Linda Hogan’s family was a nomadic tribe that moves from place to place, and she wrote about problem of perception of herself as a part of one race; Robert Hayden in his poem describe don’t understanding of parents’ love in a family; while I can describe my family issue as a misunderstanding the role of the father in the family because I grew up without the father. My mother got divorce when I was a child, and couple years late my father was killed. Like Hayden I can say about my house that I felt “fearing the chronic angers of that house” because my dad was alcoholic, and I saw a lot family violence

In the poem “The Century Quilt” by Marilyn Nelson Waniek, Waniek is able to craft a complex, contemporary poem using a variety of literary devices. Through enjambment, imagery, and chronological succession, Waniek describes the complexities of her quilt and reflects on it’s beauty and uniqueness.

Alice Walker’s Everyday Use (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature Sound and Structure 11th ed [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 166-173) is a short story told by the mother of two daughters, Mama. The story tells the tale of the return of Mama’s oldest daughter, Dee, and the problems that Dee’s return causes for Mama and her youngest daughter, Maggie. This short story includes humor and irony, displays detailed characterization, and portrays a very effective point of view. These three literary elements contribute to this story by giving insight into the past and the true personalities of the characters, and the way the characters have changed over time.

In the short story” Everyday Use” by Alice Walker who tells a story about black women who have two daughters Maggie and Dee. She has to have the decision to give the quilts of one of her two daughters. Dee her oldest daughter who has been away at college and comes to visit her family and she wants the quilts as popular fashion and show them as part of their heritage. Maggie, her youngest daughter, who lives with her mother at home and understands the family tradition and heritage.her mother has been promised to give the quilts for her. The quilts mean for Maggie communication with family and culture.So there are two different meaning of heritage because The two sister has a very different attitude toward their heritage. However, the truer one is Maggie’s concept of heritage because it means for her more than a shown popular fashion “things“ it means to love and connection to memories and people.

In the short story “Everyday Use” Alice Walker takes the reader through a world that was in the midst of a radical change. A time when new affluence was coming to a generation of African Americans. Walker’s generation knew nothing but hardships, and they had to make due with whatever they happened to have around. Therefore, many of the items which Dee and Maggie see in the course of the story have radically different meanings. Dee, having had the advantage of leaving home to go to college, had her life changed by the lifestyle she was introduced to in the city. When she came home again, her view of the items which Maggie and her mother considered as everyday use items had taken on a whole new meaning to her, she now saw them as artifacts instead of things which were useful. This new outlook on her life caused Dee to place different values on the items with which she had grown up. She wanted to take the items as things to put on display like art hanging on a wall. Dee even wanted the cherished quilts to “hang them” (Walker, 1973) instead of using them as blankets. As she saw it, to use the quilts for their original purpose would destroy them, or as she said, “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they 'd be in rags” (Walker, 1973). This is a scenario that has played out many times over the course of human history. Things which have only a utilitarian value to the present generation, take on an aura of