Quilt Research Papers Samples For Students

Throughout her short story, “Everyday Use,” Walker presents the recurring theme of harmony and conflicts. The story gives an insight into the struggles of the African – American people through the characters of Mrs. Johnson, Dee and Maggie. Arguably, “Everyday Use” delves into the issue of the changes that occur when individuals in rural areas become educated. Much of the events surround the actions of the only educated Johnson. Dee gains a formal education, but when she faces her past, one sees that this formal education brings out her innate, self-centered qualities. Nancy Tuten writes of Mrs. Johnson “awakening to one ...

Part A: Introduction

Background
Most of the quilts, in the context of the United States before World War I, focused on utilizing burgundy, gray, and indigo fabrics. The quilters focused on lightening up these darker colors through shirting prints, as well as fabrics with small dark designs on the white background. Following the First World War, manufacturers sought to flood the market through the explosion of the fabrics in unlimited designs and the new color palette. Such pastels did incorporate pink, yellow, lime sherbet, lavender, and light blue colors. Moreover, quilters focused on utilization of catalogs, magazines, and newspapers to generate opportunities ...

“Everyday Use” By Alice Walker

Introduction

On the book review of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, different authors have expressed their views on the themes and symbolism expressed in the novel. I will discuss on the viewpoints of the different authors and compare to see whether there are any similarities and differences. The novel is written by an African American. It is set at a time in American history when the black community was trying to understand its identity.

Analysis of the Book Reviews

David White in 2001 published an article titled, “Everyday Use: Defining African-American Heritage” in the Purdue North Central Literary Journal where he discussed the theme of ...

Life is like a white canvas where the colour of actions project the painting of consequences. And deciding the course of action appears as the most difficult task when one’s mind is filled with confusion and doubts. This movie How to Make an American Quilt carries through a beautiful journey of Finn Dodd’s life where she diminishes all the doubts and fear from her mind by relating to the experiences of the members of the quilting bee. This movie was directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse in 1995, which is an adaptation of the novel How to Make an American Quilt ...

Alice Walker’s short story ‘Everyday Use’ is about Dee seeing her heritage and the legacy of her ancestors as something that has already passed and gone, so that there is a danger of her true heritage being abandoned and lost. However, Mama’s understanding demonstrates that she and Maggie are are still linked through the way they live in rural poverty in the South to their ancestors (by the everyday use of items like the quilts).

Dee’s name change is symptomatic of the person she has become. As Christian (14) writes:

Dee/Wangero in ‘Everyday Use’ is embarrassed by ...

The story “Everyday Use” as written by Alice Walker displays a picture that is compelling on the differences that exist between two daughters and their mother. The story is narrated by Mama who is endearing and down-to-earth and provides a glimpse to the reader of members of the same family who do not appreciate similar traditional values or heritage. Combine with humor and wisdom, traditional values are imparted to the daughters by Mama. These traditional values are the ones that account for the strong diversity that is seen in this family (Walker).
Mama, who comes from the old south and is a strong ...

Alice Walker is an award winning American writer and activist. She has written material on racial and gender issues. Her works include poetry and fictional essays, which addressed issues, which faced African Americans at the time. Her most prolific work is The Color Purple, which won her a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award (Baker 18). Robinson characterizes Walker, “as a womanist, a black feminist, and comments on how Walker became an author partially to cope with the isolation caused by a childhood injury (294).”

Walker is a native of Georgia from an area known as Eatonton (Baker 18). She is the youngest child ...

Morrison presents the pursuit of wealth and the problems caused by racism as having a profound and damaging effect on the characters in the novel, especially the male characters, who become lesser men as a result and who are out of touch with black culture and their fellow African Americans.
The pursuit of wealth is chiefly practiced by Macon Dead II and it influences the way that Milkman lives until he discovers his family’s true history and he is transformed from someone who uses other people and take their devotion to him for granted into a man who is starting ...

Alice Walker is an influential writer who expressed her passion for tradition and heritage in the compelling short story, Everyday Use. This critically acclaimed tale is set in the rural South of the 1960s, a backdrop against which Mrs. Johnson and her daughters, Dee and Maggie, play out a parable about the struggle for cultural integrity and of remaining true to one’s nature. In Everyday Use, Walker would have us understand that keeping faith with oneself is the best way to maintain a link to the past.

Background

For Walker, that past can be traced to her native Georgia. One of eight ...