Waniek’s “The Century Quilt” explores the rich meaning behind a simple quilt. By using deep imagery combined with metaphor, the quilt manages to become something much more important than a quilt. In addition to this imagery, the structure of the poem as a whole is also incredibly important to the reader’s understanding of the blanket’s meaning. The poem itself is broken up into three parts: the introduction of the blanket, the introduction of the quilt, and the exploration of the author's family and the quilt. This order of events is pivotal to the understanding of the blanket because it helps make clear some of the major imagery and metaphor in the second section of the poem. The first and second parts of the poem introduce the two blankets.
Faith Ringgold, an artist from New York during the 70s, was known for her three and two-dimensional designs illustrating her analysis on racial relationships with a folksy type of art and traditional. She wanted to spread the life of African people, especially the African women. She used beaded and painted fabric, sculptures, and folksy African American art styles to tell her fictionalized stories about slavery. She specialed in quilting because in her words, “mixing art and ideas so that neither suffers” because she learned it from her grandmother who was a slave. From using styles and technique from her heritage, maybe she wanted to quilt her decade within the history of African Americans before her.
The quilt is described in the story as being nice and neat, except for one small part of it that was “messy”. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters question whether Mrs. Wright meant to “quilt” it or “knot” it. Along with this is the condition in which Mrs. Wright left her kitchen. Mrs. Hale questions why it appears as though she was interrupted. These are symbols of Mrs. Wright’s life with Mr. Wright, in that on the outside, things seemed happy and in order, but with closer observation, they were not. Furthermore, the rocking chair in which Mrs. Wright was sitting represents herself. This is known because Mrs. Hale states that the rocking chair “didn’t look the least bit like the Minnie Foster of twenty years before”. She mentions the chair is now “dingy red”, and
In the poem, “The century Quilt”, the poet MArilyn Nelson Waniek uses literary devices such as flashbacks, hyperboles and imagery to help the reader comprehend the signifigance of the Centrury Quilt.
She doesn’t envy her sister Dee’s new style of life, even though she lacks a higher level of education. The opposite, she enjoys her lifestyle, “Maggie still lives in poverty with her mother, putting “priceless” objects to “everyday use” (‘everyday use”). Despite the fact she always felt inferior to her older sister Dee, Maggie expresses her respect for family’s heritage collaborating with Mama, cleaning the house for Dee’ visit, “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon” (Walker 23). Maggie gives the quilts to Dee because she wanted it even though she was preserving them for her wedding day. It represented for her an invaluable symbol of her heritage, “The quilts contains pieces of family history, scraps from old dresses and shirts that family members have worn” (“everyday
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
Although the AIDS quilt is thought of by most to be a mourning device, there are in fact panels in the quilt that actually oppose the idea of mourning. In this section of the quilt, one out of the eight sections clearly stands out. It is one that reads: "Terry Sutton; He hated this quilt…and so do we." This panel, surrounded by the seven more traditional panels shows how although, on a broad level, the quilt is thought of as a non-activist mourning attempt, there are definite aspects of activism that show through despite discourses popularly associated with the quilt.
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.
There exists, in each and every individual, a desire to belong to something greater than one’s self. While there is much in life that one must discover on their own, the security ensured through the bonds of acceptance provides many with a means of identification. Such classification is exemplified in the poem “The Century Quilt” by Marilyn Nelson Wenick, where familial bonds are examined through the means of a family coverlet. Through the utilization of literary techniques, the author effectively develops the complex meaning of the century quilt.
Heritage in a family can be preserved in many different ways. Be it a diary written by your great great grandpa or a pot your grandma passed on to your mum who passed it on to you, nothing compares to the great comfort in understanding ones heritage especially when it involves the deep love and devotion of a strong mother. In the poem "My Mother Pieced Quilts" by Teresa Acosta and the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, both authors use imagery and figurative language to establish a quilt as a symbol for a mothers love of her children to illustrate their themes.
...nderstand each other’s view or just each other. Dee especially believes that these quilts are a representation of what has been discarded as trash just as her culture has, however what she doesn’t see is she was the first to disregard them just as she did her family.
She writes in a manner that speaks to where she grew up. The environment was not one of immense wealth, but the knowledge and the love she gathered in this environment is far greater than any monetary amount. As in the story that makes reference about the quilt, Walker tells her stories in a manner that are bided together. “Among some critics there is a tendency, which finds encouragement in Walker’s writing itself, to claim a strong analogy between quilting and storytelling, which allows one in turn to see Walker’s storytelling as metaphorically subsumable to quilting which in this scenario precedes her story”(Whitsitt 445). Walker expresses a different way for the reader to understand her work, because she “quilts” the story in a manner where all things flow together. The quilt is also an important aspect because it keeps the family warm, and offers a feeling of comfort. This is something that can be seen with the struggles African Americans faced during the period Walker wrote this
Quilts symbolize a family’s heritage. Maggie adheres the tradition by learning how to quilt from her grandmother and by sewing her own quilts. Maggie also puts her grandmother’s quilts into everyday use. Therefore, when Dee covets the family’s heirloom, wanting to take her grandmother’s hand-stitched quilts away for decoration, Mama gives the quilts to Maggie. Mama believes that Maggie will continually engage with and build upon the family’s history by using the quilts daily rather than distance herself from
... attempts to change the way Mama and Maggie perceive tradition by using the quilts as a wall display. Mama refuses to allow it, Dee was offered the quilts when she was in college and didn’t want them at that time. Mama gives the quilts to Maggie as her wedding gift to be used every day as they were intended, knowing how much Maggie appreciates them. I agree with Mama and Maggie for keeping family memories and objects in daily use. It is important to maintain your family history in your everyday life to preserve those special memories.
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 forming a pattern” (Webster). The quilt in “Everyday Use” was made by Grandma Dee, Big Dee, and Mama from scraps of dresses and shirts and 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. Dee then replies that Maggie would “be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (Walker,p.114). Mama says she hope Maggie will use them every day. This begins what is means to use and misuse heritage.