A Bed Without a Quilt is Like a Sky Without Stars
A Bed Without a Quilt is Like a Sky Without Stars "Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children" was once declared by perhaps the greatest scientist of all time, Albert Einstein. In the short story Everyday Use, Alice Walker teaches us lessons on true inheritance; what it is and who can receive it. Two hand-stitched quilts, symbols of true inheritance, become the center of conflict in the story. Mama, acting as the narrator, guides us through the interaction of the two very different worlds embodied in her daughters, Dee and Maggie. Mama reserves the quilts for Maggie, who truly understands their value; a value that Dee, despite professing her desire to care for and preserve them, is ironically unable to fathom. Everyday Use focuses on the bonds between women of different generations and their lasting inheritance, as symbolized in the quilts they fashion together. This connection between generations is strong, yet Dee's arrival and lack of understanding of her history shows that those bonds are vulnerable as well. The relationship between Aunt Dicie and Mama, the experienced seamstresses who made the quilts, is very different from the relationship between Maggie and Dee, sisters who share barely a word and have almost nothing in common. Just as Dee cannot understand the legacy of her name, passed along through four generations, she does not understand the significance of the quilts, which contain "scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War..." (145). The quilts are pieces of living history, documents in fabric that chronicle the lives of at