made of others tended to drive people away. She had few friends, and her one boyfriend "flew to marry a cheap city girl from a family of ignorant flashy people" after Dee "turned all her faultfinding power on him." Her drive for a better life has cost Dee dearly, and her mother's commentary reveals that Dee, too, has scars, though they are less visible than Maggie's. In addition to the use of point of view, "Everyday Use" is enriched by Alice Walker's development of symbols. In particular, the contested quilts become symbolic of the story's theme; in a sense, they represent the past of the women in the family. Worked on by two generations, they contain bits of fabric from even earlier eras, including a scrap of a Civil War uniform worn by Great Grandpa Ezra. The debate over how the quilts should be treated--used or hung on the wall--summarizes the black woman's dilemmaabout how to face the future. Can her life be seen as continuous with that of her ancestors? For Maggie, the answer is yes. Not only will she use the quilts, but also she will go on making more--she has learned the skill from Grandma Dee. While for Dee, the answer is no. She would frame the quilts and hang them on the wall, distancing them from her present life and aspirations; to put them to everyday use would be to admit her status as a member of her old-fashioned family. Taken as a whole, while the story clearly endorses the commonsense perspective of Dee's mother over Dee's affectations, it does not disdain Dee's struggle to move beyond the limited world of her youth. Clearly, however, she has not yet arrived at a stage of self-understanding. Her mother and sister are ahead of her in that respect. ...
