Everyday Use

"I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap." page 181


4. Does the mother's refusal to let Dee have the quilts indicate a permanent or temporary change of character? Why has she never done anything like it before? What details in the story prepare for and foreshadow that refusal?


I think the mother's refusal to let Dee have the quilts indicates a permanent change of character. Mama has never stood up to Dee before or contradicted her. Dee was always the confident one with the sharp tongue and always dictated what was going to happen. By Mama standing up to Dee, she showed that she wasn't going to back down any longer from what she believed in. I think that Mama had never done anything before because she was scared of Dee. I think she thought that if she ever got angry at Dee or didn't let Dee have something then Dee would leave and never come back. No mother wants their daughter to permanently leave their life. One detail in the story that foreshadows the refusal is when Mama thinks to herself, "I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style." This showed that Mama was angry at the fact that Dee had rejected her gift and now all of the sudden wanted it. Another detail that foreshadows the refusal is when Mama says, "It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself." This showed that Mama understood how important the quilts were to Maggie and that she didn't want to take that away from Maggie.