Each person is a quilt. Aspects of our lives are stitched together into a unique patchwork masterpiece. When tribulation causes tears in our quilts, we can mend ourselves with any fabric or thread of our choosing. Some people’s quilts are a combination of colorful patterns and elaborate stitch work, others live in black and white. Every unique characteristic that makes us ourselves is sewn into our quilts. The people that surround me have woven themselves into the pattern of my life. When envisioning my quilt, I picture how each of my experiences and decisions have been stitched together to form my life. I see the parts I’ve chosen to patch over rather than stitch back together and the tears that have not been mended. At times I look back on the changes I have made and a bittersweet feeling washes over me. It is not the place or the people I have moved away from; it is the feelings and memories I will never regain. Seeing the weather change from summer to fall lately has reminded me of my childhood. Coming home from school to my mom’s cooking and my dog’s wagging tail was an everyday occurrence I took for granted. I remember the flutter of excitement in my chest as I walked into my house to the sweet smell of pumpkin …show more content…
For me, these holes were torn by the words and actions of others… gaps where confidence, security, and sureness belonged. Everyone who has ever spent a winter in New England knows a quilt with holes does not suffice. I was faced with the decision to mend the spaces with thread or patch them. Patching the holes of my quilt meant adding a layer of cloth which provided added strength in these aspects of my life. The thick fabrics I added were made of wool and flannel, warm and comforting; these contributed to my sense of certainty and security. I picture the thread as a smooth, silky material, to represent the way I gracefully removed myself from toxic
In "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, two sisters want the handmade quilt that is a symbol of the family heritage. Alice Expresses what her feeling are about her heritage through this story. It means everything to her. Something such as a quilt that was hand made makes it special. Only dedication and years of work can represent a quilt.
As I looked around from my cold spot on the step, I could see an old, brick house. This house was like none other on the block. With a large American flag hanging on the door, this house – a symbol of the American dream – stood taller than all the other houses. My attention then shifted to two great big evergreen trees on each facade, and the beautiful bed of flowers, of all shapes, sizes, and colors, wrapped tightly around the base of the house – the tracings of an American summer.
“Every part of my body hurts. Except my heart. I saw no one, but, strange as it was, I missed no one” (Strayed 70). This takes a turn of events. “Every part of my body hurts, except my heart,” gives new meaning and how Strayed manages to gain emotional stability in the wake of her mothers’ death, and illness. This shows great strength in regards that she rises above the obstacles thrown in her path--the feeling of what it means to be alive. This work invites and informs the reader of the many ways one can cope with loss; moreover, Strayed demonstrates what what may work for everyone--the method of sublimation.
The feeling of abandonment and the search for approval go hand in hand; "The Century Quilt" is a touching poem communicates those feelings with its readers. This poem emphasizes familial connection and favoritism among family members. In "The Century Quilt", the speaker communicates a theme that finding approval from close family members can often feel difficult; the speaker uses symbolism to represent the sense of comfort she finds in her family, while also using imagery to help the readers visualize the dreams she has for her future.
Finally, I come to mark the passing of the seasons, signaled by the harvest and the snow squalls and most significantly to me, by the great flocks of waterfowl, purposely drifting south across the plains. Understanding, (unlike many people I know), the futility of resisting the seasons, knowing that their only recourse is to become one with the flow of time.
Symbols are displayed in both stories; the quilts in “Everyday Use” symbolize the memories of Mama’s family. The quilts are made of pieces of old clothing from Mama’s family. Each piece of the quilt represents that person and who they were. They are passed on to future generations along with stories of the ancestors’ past. The quilts represent pride of their ancestors’ struggles, where they came from and the fight to preserve their individuality. Unlike Dee, Mama and Maggie acknowledge their heritage from memories of their family members. Dee bases her heritage off ...
Starting with the first sentence the author uses repetition of the word thread, “ the thread of my own dreary thinking…thread of the dog’s fearful journey…thread of the misery from each member of the dog’s household.”(Dulaney) This makes me think
Thus, when people experience loss, their lives change. Just like Blanche, A delicate lady who couldn’t find her way in the challenging and intolerant world we live in after her husband died. As a result, she built her own world, where she lived all her illusions, but in the process, she ended up destroying all that really matters; her personality, relationships, and wellbeing. As Robert Louis Stevenson said “Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
The quilts were pieced together by Mama, Grandma Dee, and Big Dee symbolizing a long line of relatives. The quilts made from scraps of dresses worn by Grandma Dee, Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts, and Great Grandpa Ezra’s Civil War uniform represented the family heritage and values, and had been promised to Mama to Maggie when she married. However, Dee does not understand the love put into the making of the quilts, neither does she understand the significance of the quilts as part of her family heritage. It is evident she does not understand the significance of the quilt, having been offered one when went away to college declaring them “as old-fashioned” and “out of style”. She does not care about the value of the quilts to her family, rather she sees it as a work of art, valuable as an African heritage but not as a family heirloom. She wants the quilts because they are handmade, not stitched with around the borders. She tells Mama, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!... She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use… But, they’re priceless!.. Maggie would put them on her the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!” (317). The quilt signifies the family pride and history, which is important to Mama. She makes the decision to give the quilt to Maggie who will appreciate it more than Dee, to whom she says, “God knows I been saving ‘em for long enough with
To begin with, a quilt is defined as a “coverlet made of scrapes and fragments stitched together to form a pattern” (Webster). The quilt in “Everyday Use” was made by Grandma Dee, Big Dee, and Mama from scraps of dresses and shirts and is part of Grandpa’s Civil War uniform. It is filled with memories and was hand stitched by the family. Mama suggests that Dee take other ones, but Dee rejects the offer because they were “stitched by machine”(Walker, p.114) and the old ones were done by hand. Mama says that she had promised them to Maggie.
A cool breeze passed my shoulder. In the instant, it felt chilly. The neighborhood was silent and it felt so very empty. Usually on a Saturday afternoon there would be kids playing outside. The sun was glistening on the trees. Winds blowing once every three to five minutes. Trees and plants will shiver as the wind hits them. Leaves would flip in all directions showing the faded bottoms of the leaves.
To be frank, I did enjoy writing poems for this project. I found that writing poetry was rather easy for me as long as creating rhyme schemes go. Each and every of my poems have some type of personal or emotional connection. When I write poetry, if the poem has no connection to me it simply has no meaning to me either. The main idea behind my cover art and my title, “a Thread in a Tapestry’, were that the connections between all my poems were that they were all parts of a whole. Nostalgia and Immortal were about one of my favorite memories, Those Who Were Amongst Us was about my personal views on society, and Vulnerable was about the people whom I love. These are all parts of who I am as a person. The idea was that a thread is a part in a tapestry and in my art the small details and designs came together and created a larger picture. I
My grandma’s birthday is October 5. We went to visit her for her birthday, before we moved further away. One snapshot of my memory is the most vivid. Although it was the first day of October, in my memory it feels like summer. The sun is shining on the bright white lines of the parking lot of the Dairy Queen. We had finished eating and were going back to the car. I noticed that
It was a crispy cold Sunday morning on January 7th of 2006, when my amiable family and I began making plans for the day. Even though it was winter season, there was a nice pleasant weather outside. The naked winter trees swayed back and forth, rustling and moving each time the breeze would pass through them. The kids were all bundled up in their cozy jackets playing outside, as the sun started rising from the ground to approach the sky.
The snow that was predicted to be several inches by the end of the weekend quickly piled up to around eight inches by that evening. At times, the snow was falling so heavily you could hardly see the streetlights that glistened like beacons in a sea of snow. With the landscape draped in white, the trees hangi...