The Meaning And Value Of The Quilts In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

In the story “Everyday Use,” Alice walker uses a family to show how heritage can be perceived in two different ways. In the story there are the characters Mama and Maggie who live in small home and are struggling financially but understand the true meaning and value of their heritage. Then there is Dee who is well educated but struggles to understand the true meaning and value of her heritage because she is embarrassed by it. In “Everyday use,” the education differences, transformation of Dee and the quilts shows the distinction of how one can interpret their heritage.

As told in the story, it is known that dee is far more educated than mama and Maggie. Mama was denied an education but made sure that dee had an education. Dees education is the reason for her constructing herself a new heritage. Her education is the reason why she is uneducated about her heritage. It has separated dee from her true heritage because she was away from her family and couldn’t get family

The quilt symbolized the family’s origins. It had pieces of family member’s fabric sown on to it to so that they and their importance to the family could be remembered. Each part of the quilt told a story. Maggie learned to quilt from her grandmother and understands that they are an important part of her family’s heritage. Dee overlooks the value of the quilts, not seeing it as an important artifact in her family’s history but as more of a cultural trophy. She wants the quilts to “hang them” only because she likes the hand stitching that was done on them. Dee says Maggie would put the quilts to “everyday use” which is exactly their purpose so she would be honoring her heritage. Mama doesn’t want dee to have the quilts because she knows that dee will not honor the heritage by putting the quilts to use so she decides to give them to Maggie who