Essay on Quilts and Art in Everyday Use :: Everyday Use essays

Quilts and Art in Everyday Use With her story, Everyday Use, Alice Walker is saying that art should be a living, lively part of the culture it arose from, quite than a frozen timepiece to be observed from a distance. To make this point, she uses the quilts in her story to symbolize art and what happens to these quilts represents her speculation of art.(thesis) The quilts themselves, as art, are inseparable from the culture they arose from. (topic sentence) The history of these quilts is a history of the family. The narrator says, In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and much years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrells Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece . . . that was from Great Grandpa Ezras uniform that he wore in the Civil War. So these quilts, which fix become an heirloom, not only represent the family, exclusively are an integral part of the family. Walker is saying that true art not only represents its culture, but is an insepa rable part of that culture. The manner in which the quilts are treated shows Walkers view of how art should be treated. Dee covets the quilts for their financial and aesthetic value. But theyre priceless she exclaims, when she learns that her mother has already promised them to Maggie. Dee argues that Maggie is backward enough to prescribe them to everyday use. Indeed, this is how Maggie views the quilts. She values them for what them mean to her as an individual. This becomes clear when she says, I can member Grandma Dee without the quilts, implying that her connection with the quilts is ad hominem and emotional rather than financial and aesthetic. She also knows that the quilts are an active process, kept alive through continuous renewal. As the narrator points out, Maggie knows how to quilt. The deuce sisters values concerning the quilt represent the two main approaches to art appreciation in our society. Art can be valued for financial and aesthetic reasons, or it can be valu ed for personal and emotional reasons. When the narrator snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, Walker is saying that the second set of values is the correct one. Art, in order to be kept alive, must be put to Everyday Use -- literally in the case of the quilts, figuratively in the case of conventional art.