“Everyday Use” Question Two
When discussing who should take ownership of the quilts, Dee exclaimed to Mama: “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (302). This statement made by Dee implies that she is educated enough to know about her heritage, like she later states. However, these quilts, representing that heritage, are not to be put to “everyday use.” Dee feels that she has moved forward and far away from where she came. That is why she wouldn’t dare actually use the quilts, but hang them instead. It is with this statement that Dee expresses her power over Maggie and their shared heritage, and that Maggie isn’t in the social position to appreciate their heritage like Dee does, because Maggie hasn’t made something of herself, in Dee’s eyes.
After Mama rips the quilts out of Dee’s hands and gives them to Maggie, Dee said: “You ought to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it” (303). Dee implies with this simple statement that she is of a superior social status than that of Mama and Maggie. She is telling Maggie to get off that land, go out and get an education, like she did, and become something better than what she is. Maggie, on the other hand, believes there is nothing wrong with the way her and Mama live. At the end, they sit on the porch, snuff in their bottom lips, and watch Dee drive off, enjoying the view as the dust from the car settles. This is their life, and they are content with it just the way it is.
“Everyday Use” Question Three
I would agree with both of those takes on “Everyday Use.” Dee does try to force impractical knowledge on Mama and Maggie, based upon her own education and what she believes to be the knowledge a woman of that time should possess. Dee would read to Mama and Maggie, regardless of whether they wanted to hear it or not: “She used to read to us without pity: forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits… upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice” (299). The key word here is “underneath.” Mama is implying that Dee may be superior – at least in Dee’s eyes – because she is the one who is educated and can obviously read. Dee could be attempting to educate her family out of the kindness of her heart, because she wants her family to get the most out of life. But, it seems more like Dee used to read to Mama and Maggie to conform them into believing and being what Dee is. Throughout the story, Mama is constantly comparing herself to Dee, and how opposite they are, how hard-working Mama is and how uptight Dee is: “Dee wanted nice things… At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was; I never had an education myself… I was always better at a man’s job” (299).
I do believe that Dee does try to oppress Mama and Maggie herself. Dee walks into the house that she hasn’t been to yet, and it seems like she hasn’t been home in a long time since going away for school, and starts asking for Mama’s things. Dee at first wants the churn top and the dasher, not to actually use, but for decorations. Mama shows an attachment for the family history of the dasher, but let it go. Then, Dee asks for two very old quilts, the pieces passed down from generations over time. Dee implies that Mama doesn’t grasp the heritage behind the quilts, but of course, Dee does because she is educated. Mama argues with Dee about how Grandma used pieces that her own mother handed down to her, and pieces were used from Great Grandpa’s Civil War uniform, essentially insisting that Mama does in fact understand the so-called heritage of the quits. She implies that what matters is what other family members of generations past have put their hard work into making and piecing together those quilts, and what doesn’t matter is what’s written history text books.
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