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The Symbolism Of The Quilts In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

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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. Alice Walker uses symbolism, theme, and metaphors in her story “Everyday Use.” The first pieces of symbolism in the story …show more content…

The quilts are the main portion of the story because they represent Mama’s family heritage. The quilts are composed of “scrapes of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts. 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” (Walker 152). They also represent coming together and healing. Mama, Dee, and Maggie do not have the most ideal family relationship, but Maggie and Mama are creating a stronger bond after Maggie told Mama Dee can have the quilts because she can “’member Grandma Dee without the quilts” (Walker 153). Not only does Maggie cherish the quilts because of their background, but she also knows how to quilt, thus giving her the ability to carry on that heritage. This makes Mama realize Maggie is

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