Regardless of the colors used, quilts reflect the passion and love that a quilter has for life itself. The colors in quilts are as diverse as people’s beliefs. Somehow the colors unite to form a harmonious whole, just as people may do. Quilt patterns are symbols of life and death.

author presents to convince you an idea is true. To figure out whether an author’s points are supported, look for any reasons and evidence he or she supplies for each point. A reason is an explanation for why the idea might be true. A piece of evidence is a fact that can be proven true.

When slaves made their escape, they used their memory of the quilts as a mnemonic device to guide them safely along their journey, according to McDaniel. The historians believe the first quilt the seamstress would display had a wrench pattern.

In “Everyday Use” quilts represent the creativity, skill, and resourcefulness of African American women. Women like Grandma Dee used and reused whatever material they had at hand to create functional, beautiful items. Quilts also represent the Johnson family heritage in particular.

The quilts are pieces of living history, documents in fabric that chronicle the lives of the various generations and the trials, such as war and poverty, that they faced. The quilts serve as a testament to a family’s history of pride and struggle.

Thus, the quilt as a symbol in “Everyday Use” stands for the history and culture of African- American people. As the quilts are part of the family’s heritage, and as well of the heritage of African-American people, both Maggie and Dee want to have them.

At the end of the story, Dee, who was always brighter, better-looking, and favored, is angry because her mother refuses to give the quilts which she, Grandma Dee, and Big Dee made over the years.

Unlike her sister, Dee, Maggie loves the family quilts because she knows the people whose lives and stories are represented by them. She even knows how to quilt herself. Her mother has promised Maggie the quilts, which Dee has already once refused, when she gets married because they are meaningful to her.

In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker takes up what is a recurrent theme in her work: the representation of the harmony as well as the conflicts and struggles within African-American culture.

The basic conflict in this story is Maggie’s knowledge of every day things and her intention to use them for their purposes, and her sister (Dee), who considers herself more worldly and educated and who thinks these every day things should be hung up and admired as antiques.

Thus the resolution of this story occurs when Mama decides not to give in any more to her pushy daughter Dee, and gives the quilts to her subdued and shy daughter, Maggie, clearly highlighting the fact that it is actually Maggie who can understand the importance of the quilts in terms of their family heritage.

For Mama, the best way to protect the spirit of the quilts is to risk destroying them while in Maggie’s permanent “care.” The irony of this is not bitter but touching: preserving the objects and taking them out of everyday use is disrespectful because it disregards the objects’ intended, original uses.

Situational irony: It is ironic that Dee asks for the quilts at all, since she has so thoroughly rejected every other part of her heritage, from her style of dress to her name. She uses her skills in sewing (similar to Mama and Maggie’s skill of quilting) to establish her own business.

FLASHBACK & FORESHADOWING FLASHBACK: Mama explains that Dee has never really been told “no,” implying she doesn’t know the meaning of it. FORESHADOWING: This foreshadows Mama’s final decision to give the quilt to Maggie instead of Dee. She is finally told no.

A character’s thoughts can foreshadow. For example, “I told myself this is the end of my trouble, but I didn’t believe myself.” Narration can foreshadow by telling you something is going to happen. Details are often left out, but the suspense is created to keep readers interested.

Foreshadowing is one of the main dramatic techniques in Romeo and Juliet. The lovers’ tragic end is both directly and subtly foreshadowed from the very beginning of the play. This strong foreshadowing emphasizes that the lovers’ fate is inevitable and that their sense of freedom is an illusion.

The sun and moon symbolize constancy and fickleness.

ABRAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON: (aside to GREGORY) Is the law of our side if I say “ay”? GREGORY: (aside to SAMPSON) No. Abram understands the symbolic meaning behind Sampson’s biting his thumb and takes offense at the gesture.