from Hands: for Mother’s Day

Nikki Giovanni

Some people think a quilt is a blanket stretched across a Lincoln bed…1or from frames on a wall…a quaint museum piece to be purchased onBloomingdale’s2 30-day same-as-cash plan…Quilts are our mosaics…Michelle-Angelo’s3 contribution to beauty…We weave a quilt with dry, rough hands…Quilts are the way our lives are lived…We survive on patches…scraps…the leftovers from a materially richer culture…the throwaways from those with emotional options…We do the far more difficult job of taking that which nobody wants and not only loving it…not only seeing its worth…but making it lovable…and intrinsically worthwhile…

 

Literary Connections:  Explain how Giovanni’s passage relates to “Everyday Use.”  Provide details for support.

 

Characterization:  Using a double bubble map, compare and contrast Dee and Maggie.  Make

sure you are using personality traits and proving each one with a detail from the story.

 

Archetypes:    Explain how the unhealable wound and innate wisdom vs. educated stupidity are

in the story.

 

Symbols:  Explain what the home and the quilt symbolize to Dee.