Question

What is the original purpose of the mother’s quilts? Why does the speaker find deeper meaning in them? Cite textual evidence to support your answer.

Answer 1

You’re asking about Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use.”

- Original purpose of the mother’s quilts: practical, everyday use. The quilts were made from worn family clothing and kept in daily life rather than put away as museum pieces. Walker shows this when Mama says the quilts are precisely the sort of things “Maggie would probably be backward enough to put to everyday use.”

- Why the speaker finds deeper meaning in them: the narrator (Mama) sees the quilts as living family history—pieces literally stitched from ancestors’ clothing that carry memories and the work of previous generations. The quilts are not just objects; they embody the family’s past and the continuity of everyday life. This idea is made explicit in the story when Dee/Wangero tells Mama she wants the quilts so she can “look at them and be reminded of where she came from,” while Mama insists that the quilts’ real value is in being used and kept within the family’s daily life. Mama’s final decision—to give the quilts to Maggie because she will use and cherish them—underscores that deeper, personal meaning.

Supporting textual evidence:
- Mama: “Maggie would probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.”
- Dee/Wangero: she wants the quilts so she can “look at them and be reminded of where she came from.”
- The narrator’s action at the end—taking the quilts from Dee and giving them to Maggie—signals which understanding of heritage the narrator values: heritage as lived and used, not merely displayed.