Discussion Topic
Mama's decision to give the quilts to Maggie and Dee's reaction to it
Summary:
Mama decides to give the quilts to Maggie because she believes Maggie will appreciate their heritage and use them as intended, rather than as mere artifacts. Dee reacts with anger and frustration, feeling entitled to the quilts as part of her reclaimed cultural identity, despite her previous disinterest in their practical and familial value.
How does Dee react to Mama's plans for the quilts and what is Maggie's suggestion?
Mama has "promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries John Thomas." Dee is indeed angry in response, and her reaction is what provides the title of Alice Walker's short story:
"Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."
Dee clearly is judgmental here, characterizing a set of actions as "backward." She's certainly not being humble.
At the same time, though, I wish to provide a counterview to the previous post. I believe that the story is written in a way that biases the reader against Dee and her boyfriend. (The narrator, the very person who feeds the reader all of the information, is clearly biased against the couple. Look at how she mocks their names, for example.) As readers, we're encouraged to see Maggie's receipt of the quilts as a sort of victory. As readers, of course, we...
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can identify and attempt to resist the narrator's bias. I try to get my students to think more about the story by exploring the narrator's bias and by asking them what's so wrong with preserving (i.e. not putting to "everyday use") an item of value. Many of my students have items from previous generations -- china, jewelry, etc. -- that they certainly cherish but don't use every day.
Dee, as expected, is angry. Her mom plans to give her sister a quilt which was made with several family heirlooms such as civil war uniforms, clothes belonging to the family, and other left over important pieces of clothing. Dee, on the other hand, wants the quilt to hang it in her place as if it were a conversation piece (which it was), but she took away the value of the quilt as a symbol of family heritage, and gave it the same importance as a museum piece.
Maggie, on the other hand, is humble and does not mind that Dee takes the quilt, however, deep inside she wants it because she does hold esteem for it as a family heirloom, just like her mother thinks it.
In the end, Mama put her foot down and Maggie kept the quilt.
(yay!)
What prompted Mama to give the quilts to Maggie instead of Dee?
Mrs. Johnson wants Dee to be the next matriarch in the family. She wants her to be like Big Dee, Grandma Dee, like herself--strong-willed, self-sufficient. Maggie, after the house fire, feels like she has no purpose, no everyday use. Mama wants to give her a purpose, a use, in the quilts. Mama gives her the quilts as a way of acknowledging her past and her pride in her heritage, home, and the "everyday use" of heirlooms.
The quilts are emblems of living history. They are like what other family's might give in terms of inheritances, wills, land, etc... except that quilts tell stories. They are multi-generational; they are the by-products of hard work and sacrifice. The maker of the quilt is not ashamed of her poverty, her slave past. She does not forsake the quilt by hanging it on the way. She honors it by using it and giving it to another who will use it. By this means the quilt remains a quilt, as it is used as it was originally intended to be used.
The same is for culture and heritage. Mama knows Maggie, unlike Dee, will honor the culture and heritage by using it, or continuing it the way it was originally intended. Dee is too mobile, too outspoken, too fickle, too possessive of material objects to be a legitimate matriarch of the family.