From the beginning of the story we see that Mrs. Johnson, who describes herself as a "large, big boned woman with rough, man-working hands" (678). She enjoys a rugged farming life in the country and after her first house burned down moved to a small, tin-roofed house surrounded by a clay yard in the middle of a cow pasture. She has two daughter Maggie who is much like herself living at home and uneducated, and Dee who was destined to go out into the world to see change and to be changed.

Although Mrs. Johnson had two daughters, she places Dee her oldest daughter on a pedestal. She dreams about being reunited with Dee on a television talk show. During this time she would be ushered by a limousine and brought into a room where "Johnny Carson shakes her hand and

During Dee's visit she started to show the true meaning of her visit home. While examining different artifacts in the house Dee asks her mother if she could have the old butter churn so she could use it as a centerpiece for her table. This is completely ridiculous on Dee's part. She only wants the item to impress her peers. They have no sentimental value and she would probably not even know how to use it. After confiscating an item that Mrs. Johnson and Maggie still use, Dee had the audacity to take two quilts out of a trunk and expect to take them with no questions asked. When Mrs. Johnson told Dee that she had promised them to Maggie Dee being the self centered person she is says, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts"(682)! "She'd probably be backward enough to put then to everyday use"(682)! This really bothers me because Dee was offered the quilts before she had left for college but they were not fashionable to her so she refused them. Now she has changed her mind and expects she can get whatever her heart desires. She is very immature in the fact that she has to put down her sister to make what she perceives is a good point. Maggie on the other hand, is a generous character she tells her mother "she can have them, Mamma"(682) offering to go ahead and give the quilts to Dee. In the Houston A Baker article they quote "Maggie is the arisen goddess of the Walker's story; she is the sacred figure who bears the scarifications of experience and knows how to convert patched into robustly patterned and beautiful quilted wholes"(Baker 416). Maggie is the one true character in this story. Even though she has lived a sh

Some common words found in the essay are:
Houston Baker, Alice Walker, Johnny Carson, Maggie Dee, Kemanjo Johnson, Dee Hakim-a-barber, , alice walker, visit home, maggie dee,
Approximate Word count = 1103
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)