Near the end of Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use,"
Mama bequeaths the quilts to Maggie:
readability="9">
"The tuth is," I said, "I promised to give them
quilts to Maggie, for when she marries John
Thomas."
In denial, Dee
responds:
She
gasped like a bee had stung her."Maggie can't appreciate
these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to
everyday
use."
Dee, the
materialist, wants only to collect and display her culture, not to put it to everyday
use. Knowing this, Mama passes the bedding on to her more grateful daughter Maggie,
crowning her the next family matriarch.
You see, quilts are
a living memory of the Johnson family. Rather than throw away old dresses, patches were
saved and recycled into bedding. This feminine self-sufficient practice not only honors
the past generations--dating back to the slaves--but it gives purpose to the practical,
domestic work of women.
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