Alice Walker's Everyday Use And The Heritage Of A Family
Research Paper Final Draft
“Continuing a Tradition” Everyday Use and the Heritage of a Family. What is tradition? How do we classify tradition in this modern day? Better yet, how do we continue a tradition passed down from generation to generation through the family tree? To explore these thought provoking questions, Alice Walker’s “ Everyday Use”, Torsney and Elsley’s “Quilt Culture: Tracing the Pattern”, and “Heritage and Deracination” by David Cohort analyze the historical context of quilting in the 20th Century. I will be using excerpts from my personal narrative, various scholarly papers and Alice Walker’s works herself. I intend to provide textual evidence of what the quilt signifies and the struggles of their family during the …show more content…
Wangero, who is the big sister of Maggie and Mama’s oldest daughter, really wants the quilt. Wangero Is having a very difficult time understanding the true value of the quilt and what it truly represents, she does not fully understand the concept for the quilt. The quilt is a heirloom, which means that it has been transferred down from generation to generation. Quilts are normally made to tell stories but nevertheless provide warmth for the bearer of the quilt. In Cheryl B. Torsney and Judy Elsley, eds. Quilt Culture: Tracing the pattern they speculate that “ the quilt’s power as a metaphor arises from its doubleness: a quilt can be both “itself” (a bed covering, an heirloom, an artifact) and a representation of many other things (affiliations of class and gender, textuality, cultural patterns.) The double nature of the quilt reflexively poses inquiry into the multiple theories and social relationships that proliferate around the quilt’s purpose, evaluation, and signification. Noting the compelling and dynamic nature of the quilt as a metaphor, the editors found it odd that no previous volume had yet treated the quilt as a metaphor.” (Quilt Culture: Tracing the Pattern.1994.) The quilt can have so much representation, signify and symbolize a plethora of things, and Mama understands and wants Wangero to also understand the significance of the quilt in their family lineage but she
“Continuing a Tradition” Everyday Use and the Heritage of a Family. What is tradition? How do we classify tradition in this modern day? Better yet, how do we continue a tradition passed down from generation to generation through the family tree? To explore these thought provoking questions, Alice Walker’s “ Everyday Use”, Torsney and Elsley’s “Quilt Culture: Tracing the Pattern”, and “Heritage and Deracination” by David Cohort analyze the historical context of quilting in the 20th Century. I will be using excerpts from my personal narrative, various scholarly papers and Alice Walker’s works herself. I intend to provide textual evidence of what the quilt signifies and the struggles of their family during the …show more content…
Wangero, who is the big sister of Maggie and Mama’s oldest daughter, really wants the quilt. Wangero Is having a very difficult time understanding the true value of the quilt and what it truly represents, she does not fully understand the concept for the quilt. The quilt is a heirloom, which means that it has been transferred down from generation to generation. Quilts are normally made to tell stories but nevertheless provide warmth for the bearer of the quilt. In Cheryl B. Torsney and Judy Elsley, eds. Quilt Culture: Tracing the pattern they speculate that “ the quilt’s power as a metaphor arises from its doubleness: a quilt can be both “itself” (a bed covering, an heirloom, an artifact) and a representation of many other things (affiliations of class and gender, textuality, cultural patterns.) The double nature of the quilt reflexively poses inquiry into the multiple theories and social relationships that proliferate around the quilt’s purpose, evaluation, and signification. Noting the compelling and dynamic nature of the quilt as a metaphor, the editors found it odd that no previous volume had yet treated the quilt as a metaphor.” (Quilt Culture: Tracing the Pattern.1994.) The quilt can have so much representation, signify and symbolize a plethora of things, and Mama understands and wants Wangero to also understand the significance of the quilt in their family lineage but she