and wants these items to decorate her home. The resistance of Mama to allow Dee to take the quilts creates an image of self-awareness. Mama perceives Dee as a dream in her life. One of her greatest fears is to loose her daughter who has encountered and grasped the culture and heritage passed on through living. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backwards enough to put them to every day use.”(61) Maggie is more deserving of the quilts, as she will use them. To allow Dee to take them, as decoration, would destroy the relationship that Maggie and Mama have developed over the years. “They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them.”(65) The quilts represent the past, present and future for Maggie.The fear of loosing the culture and heritage leads Dee back home. The possessions that she asks for are a small way to regain a portion of life she has forgotten. Dee does not accept the lifestyle that Mama and Maggie are living. “You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it.”(66) The value that one places on life should not be looked upon as history, but as a living existence of the past. Mama and Maggie continue to use all of the mementos of the past to live an every day life. It is a simple life with simple pleasures. Dee might never “manage” to come home again. The possessions of the past ultimately will change the relationships of the future....
