Everyday Use

The quilts stitched by the Mrs. Johnson’s grandmother serve as a focal point for the two very different notions of heritage and art that are at play in “Everyday Use.” For Dee, the quilts are cultural artifacts; they are important not because they belonged to, and were made by, members of her own family, but because they represent African-American culture and history more broadly. In a sense, Dee sees the quilts as symbols rather than as tangible objects, and therefore can’t conceive of actually using them for their intended purpose. In fact, her repeated exclamations of “Imagine!” while talking about them suggest that she has a hard time thinking of the quilts as real at all (Paragraph 61).

By contrast, for both Maggie and Mrs. Johnson, the quilts’ significance lies in their relationship to family history:

In both of them were 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 (Paragraph 53).

As a result, it’s important to the narrator in particular that the quilts actually be used for their intended purpose; by putting them to “everyday use” (Paragraph 66), Maggie would be honoring both the memory and the work of her ancestors.