Quilts Need Everyday Use

In Everyday Use by Alice Walker, the mother's refusal to let Dee have the quilts indicates a permanent change of character. When Dee does finally leave, it seems as if she is relieved. She immediately sits and has some snuff with Maggie, which is a fairly nonchalant action after dealing with that drama. In addition, it was abundantly clear throughout the telling of the story that Dee's mother could not fully accept the name change her daughter went through. She persistently puts one of the names in parenthesis as if the reader would not understand who she was talking about. She had never stood up for Maggoe the way she did about the quilts likely because of the way Dee acted. She came home talking about their African roots and how she "married" some random guy with a complicated name. No mother would be understanding of that kind of drastic character change, and the mother felt as though Dee did not truly understand their culture; she simply acted as if she did because of others' influence on her, while Maggie had been home with her, experiencing the legacy the quilts held.