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What makes the quilts valuable to Dee? What makes the quilts valuable to Maggie?

In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the quilts represent a static art for Dee, one that can be framed like a museum piece. For Maggie, the quilts have a functional and sentimental beauty, and they are meant to be used.


The family quilts have become valuable to Dee only because she wishes to gather some artifacts from her former home. It has now become fashionable for her to have things on display that relate to African heritage, so she has become interested in cultural history. On the other hand,...

In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the quilts represent a static art for Dee, one that can be framed like a museum piece. For Maggie, the quilts have a functional and sentimental beauty, and they are meant to be used.


The family quilts have become valuable to Dee only because she wishes to gather some artifacts from her former home. It has now become fashionable for her to have things on display that relate to African heritage, so she has become interested in cultural history. On the other hand, Maggie finds worth in the quilts because of their functionality and sentimental value. She likes the quilts because they are warm and because they have been made by hand throughout generations of her family. In fact, it was her grandmother and aunt who taught her how to quilt.


The mother, too, finds sentimental value in these quilts. Also, she recognizes that Maggie treasures them and looks at the squares made from old clothes with fond memories. So, when Dee grabs the quilts made by her grandmother, the mother tells Dee that she has promised Maggie that the quilts are hers. The mother narrates,



I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style.



Dee argues that these quilts are priceless, and if Maggie puts them on her bed for "everyday use," they will be ruined and "just be in rags." Still, the mother refuses to give them to Dee because Dee tells her she would "hang them" like some static artifact. Reacting to these words about the quilts that she helped to make as a girl, the mother grabs the quilts from Dee and immediately drops them into Maggie's lap. She tells Dee to "[T]ake one or two of the others."


An angry Dee just turns and walks out to her boyfriend who waits by the car. She tells Maggie and her mother as they come out to the car, "You just don't understand....[Y]our heritage." Shortly after the dust of the car settles, Maggie and her mother sit outside, enjoying the evening, not in the least interested in the new world of Dee.

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