Family Connection

In “Everyday Use” you get the feeling that family is important to Maggie from an early point in the story. She values the bond that she has with her mother and the ties that she has with her family history. One of the ways she shows this is through the quilt. The quilt represents their family history, and their family heritage. It is also a symbol of their culture. The fact that Maggie knows so much about this quilt shows her connection with her family, and shows how she cares for her family so much. The way that Dee only wants the quilt to hang up and display it in her house shows how completely out of tune she is with her family. Even though she is trying so hard to “connect” with her culture and where she came from she is actually completely overlooking the true place she came from. Maggie does a much better job of making connections with her past than Dee does, and Maggie is not trying to make connections, she just does it naturally.