My Mother Pieced My Quilts Analysis

In “The Century Quilt,” the speaker appreciates her family’s cultural diversity by comparing their heritage to a colorful quilt belonging to Meema. She shifts from past to present to future, continuing the extended metaphor in different scenarios. Author Mary Nelson Waniek uses a variety of literary techniques such as structure, imagery, and tone to develop the complex meanings interpreted throughout the poem. Together, the poem is spoken through a woman who emphasizes the importance of family.

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is about a family of three women who have a weak relationship due to jealousy, burdens, and insensitivity. The characters are the narrator, Mama, Maggie, and her eldest daughter, Dee. The setting is the Deep South in the early 1970s. Dee, the antagonist, comes back home to pick up a few items she wants for her new home and wants the quilts Mama’s family has passed down for years, but Mama refuses. Dee believes her family is not intelligent enough to understand their family heritage and thinks she would be better off with the quilts and use them as an art piece.

Professor Joe Sarnowski’s academic journal criticizes the characters of the story, “Every Day Use”. He examines the conflict between the mother and her oldest daughter, Dee. Sarnowski asserts that Dee is trying to justify her personal gain, since she cherishes the economic value of the quilts more than that of the heritage they represent. The author continues to compare Dee’s ego with that of her sister Maggie. Who in contrast, has true appreciation for her heritage.

Housewife In her article "Motherhood/Paradise Lost (Domestic Division)", Terry Martin Hekker, a housewife who had been married to John Hekker, her husband, discusses the drawbacks of housewife as an occupation for women by sharing with the public her experience as a housewife in two different situations and centuries. The article aims to inform other women that depending on housewife as an occupation is really bad for their future. Hekker’s article is a good advice for today’s mothers as it is based on real experience. Hekker explains in her article that housewife is a good occupation, but there must be alternative jobs as it is not a permanent occupation.

These poems being written from a perspective coming from a young girl shows great similarities and bonds between both poems and poets. It not only connects poems and poets but details of the ideas of the poems as

In the interview with Rafael Ocasio he asks who influences you and Cofer states that her grandmother influenced her because she would always go to her grandmother’s house and sit around her grandmother while her grandmother is telling her stories. Then in another interview with Marilyn Kallet she asks about her father and Cofer says that he wanted her to read books not cook if she didn’t want to learn how to and he wanted her to think that education is empowering. In another interview with Lorraine M. Lopez she asks what are your sources of your inspiration and Cofer responded her grandmother and her parents. In all of these interviews she shows that she truly cares about her family and that she hasn’t forgotten about where she comes from.

By doing so the author is further developing the significance. The narrator recalls multiple key memories that contribute to the significance of the blanket, as well as including her meema’s perspective and how she felt towards the quilt as well. The main character reflects on when she first found the quilt “how we used to wrap ourselves and play in its folds and become chieftains and princess” The quilt becomes far more than a blanket to her. It is the representation of her childhood. It is key to unlocking all her memories from long ago and also being a memory of meema.

In the short story, “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker creates a conflict between Maggie and Dee for the belongings made by their relatives whether they should be kept to use in their house or kept to admire as antiques with Dee to last longer. Walker made items to have symbolism to be used as an everyday thing, but with Dee returning from college she believes she should keep items from being demolished and placed as an item in a museum for observation of her heritage. Walker in the story shows how Maggie and her mother use the quilt as a tradition that has been passed down by every generation in their family by putting them to use. The mother’s purpose towards the quilt is to pass it down by teaching how to quilt so that it could be quilted if

The quilt gives a true connection with the past and the heritage. The mother wanted to pass the tradition to her younger daughter by giving the quilt but Dee, her eldest daughter wanted it for herself, but mother did not give it to her.” I promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she married John Thomas” (Walker). The story also shows the struggle over tradition as Dee changes the name to Wangero,” I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me”

Family is much more than blood-relations; it is a bond between people through shared experiences and memories. The importance of passing along such memories is what creates and preserves family history, and in Teresa Acosta's poem " My Mother Pieced Quilts," this experience is captured through diction, imagery, and figurative

And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War.” (pg. 1517). When Mrs. Johnson finally tells Dee that she cannot have the quilts because they were promised to Maggie, Dee gasps and says, “Maggie Can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (pg. 1517).

In the short story, “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker, one can say that the quilts mentioned in the story symbolize heritage because the quilts were made by different generations of the family. Because of this, the reader can see that Dee views her heritage as something to be put up for display so people can admire her past, where as Maggie, views her heritage as something that is learned and teach to others. For example, when Mama tells Dee that she can’t have them, Dee says, “Well … What will you do with them? … ‘Hang them’ she said, like somebody used to never winning anything …”. As a general rule,

One part that stood out to me when reading the book, was the scene between Lennie and Curley’s wife in the barn. This scene was when I realized that she was one of my favorite characters in the book. It was nice to hear her talk about how she had a great fantasy of being a movie actress, but this was thwarted by a bad talent agent, and her mother. Like other men on the ranch, Curley’s wife suffers from lack of love and attention, and also from having her dreams sacrificed for Curley. You understand then, that she has reasoning for her wandering around the ranch, looking for someone to talk to.

Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today.

Dee wants to take the quilts away with her, insisting that they should be hung on the wall and preserved rather than being used. Mama, on the other hand, wants to give them to Maggie, who learned to quilt from Grandma Dee and Big Dee. Maggie and Dee have different opinions about their heritage. To Maggie, heritage is everything around her that is involved in her everyday life. Whereas, Dee believes that her mother’s family heirlooms are to frame on the wall, or display, as a reminder of her family history. She desires the carved dasher and family quilts, but she sees them as artifacts of a lost time, suitable for display but not for actual, practical use.