Everyday Use: A Question of Quilts Essay

In Everyday Use, Alice Walker presents the reader with two sisters who are as different as two sisters could ever be. They have very little in common, and in fact they think, walk, stand, and talk, so differently that strangers would not take them for sisters. They differ in a more significant way in terms of the themes of the story, too. Dee and Maggie have very different ideas about their heritage and their culture, and the part that culture plays in their lives. Only one sister can be right when it comes to culture and the question of who should get Mama’s quilts, and in this case, Maggie is more deserving, because she has a much more complete understanding of her culture and heritage than Dee does. Even though they have grown up in the same home, Maggie and Dee have very different values in terms of the way they see their culture. To Dee, culture is something that she has only recently discovered has been taken from her. Maggie, however, does not feel that her culture has been lost. She lives in her family home, with family objects around her, and culture is something she lives each and every day. Dee rejected her family and left home as soon as she was able, and never realized that she was leaving culture behind her. Even the quilts are proof of this—Dee does not even know who made them, whereas Maggie does know, and she was even taught to quilt by the women who made the quilts they are fighting over. Maggie, therefore, has a much better understanding of the fact that culture and family are inseparable. A second important aspect of this issue is family. Maggie and Dee see their family very differently. For Maggie, family is something to remember and be proud of, and she loves and honors her mother and other family members. Dee visits her family only because they have something she wants, and even as an adult she still believes that she is better than her family. She seems to have always considered herself superior, trying to improve their minds with knowledge that they â€Å"didn’t necessarily need to know†, and then later she says that â€Å"no matter where they ‘choose’ to live† she will try to see them. This implies that Dee would prefer them to live elsewhere—perhaps in a better area or in a place that is more convenient for her to visit. Dee seems to be ashamed of her family, but Maggie has never left them, and she has learned all about her heritage from her family members. The third is the use each sister will put the quilts to. Dee wants them to hang on a wall and look at. She seems to think they will â€Å"prove† that she has regained her cultural heritage. She does not understand that she could have had it all along if she had wanted to. Maggie will actually use the quilts for the purpose they were intended, and she knows that the quilts represent a link to her family as well as to her culture. Maggie and Dee fight over the quilts because they represent different things to each of them. For many reasons, Maggie deserves to have them more than Dee does. Maggie is the sister who understands and accepts that family, culture, and the quilts are all linked together and are all part of the heritage that Dee rejected.