Alice Walker

The Image of the Quilt: Alice Walker's the Color Purple and "Everyday Use"

What makes us who we are? A large part of our current lives are derived from the lives of those who came before us. Our family traditions and heritages are an important part of ourselves. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple and "Everyday Use," cloth, quilts, and the act of sewing are highlighted as a way to bring together the diversity of a family to provide for a strong structural foundation for preserving family traditions, allowing any family to survive and thrive despite any wide number of obstacles.

It is clear that Walker uses patchwork quilts and the act of sewing itself as an obvious motif in her work The Color Purple. Celie finds individual success through sewing. Based on her skills, she is allowed to become financially independent, which is a huge deal based...
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