What levels of meaning do you find in the story’s title?
What will be an ideal response?
- Both sisters want to use the quilts and dasher for “everyday use,” but the motives for doing so, and the actual usages, are remarkably different. The reason Dee returns home is not to visit her Mama and younger sister, but to take pictures and perhaps try to acquire certain objects in order to “display” her family heritage to her friends, although she knows little about that legacy. In contrast, Mama and Maggie value the quilts and kitchen tools because they were used by their mothers and grandmothers in everyday life during difficult times. While these objects are practical, they also have emotional value to Mama and Maggie because the women appreciate why they were originally created and what they were originally used for.
Dee is appalled that Mama would give the quilts to Maggie, who would actually “use” them for their intended purpose, and let them become worn out. While hanging a quilt on a wall has its decorative and artistic uses (and so is still, in one sense, “everyday use”), Dee’s inability to value her heritage as symbolized in the objects leads the reader to be pleased Mama stands up for Maggie’s version of “everyday use.”
Language Arts & World Languages
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Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
Language Arts & World Languages