Dee's terrible selfishness and the ownership that she has asserted over the quilts that she once rejected, over the heritage represented by those quilts (that she's also never cared about before and doesn't really care about now), "hits" mama and she will not allow Dee to make off with the things that are of far more importance to Maggie. Maggie knows how to quilt, and this is one way she keeps their family heritage alive.
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Dee's terrible selfishness and the ownership that she has asserted over the quilts that she once rejected, over the heritage represented by those quilts (that she's also never cared about before and doesn't really care about now), "hits" mama and she will not allow Dee to make off with the things that are of far more importance to Maggie. Maggie knows how to quilt, and this is one way she keeps their family heritage alive.
Maggie knows all the stories behind the items that Dee wants to take so that she can "do something artistic" with them. Dee doesn't know the stories. In fact, she's rejected her own name -- a family name -- insisting that it must be tied to white slave owners somewhere back, failing to recognize that she was named after the strong women in her family who all share that name. Dee doesn't care for or value her heritage like Maggie does, shy Maggie who keeps to corners and doesn't say much. It seems as though Mama recognizes which daughter is the one worth valuing, something she doesn't seem to have noticed before because she spent so much time trying to get Dee all the things that she wanted.
Dee certainly doesn't seem to come to an awareness of the shortcomings in the way she views her family heritage, though Maggie is so shocked when Mama ranks her promises to Maggie over her desire to please Dee that it seems possible she has an epiphany in this moment as well. Perhaps she realizes her own value for the first time, as she ends the story far more content than she's ever seemed to be before.
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