the plot of Everyday Use

The story concerns a rare visit Dee pays to her mother and sister, after a long absence. As she waits for her daughter, Mrs. Johnson reflects on how much Dee hated her home life when she was a child--so much that the author hints that she set fire to the house, nearly killing Maggie and scarring her for life. After the fire, Mrs. Johnson raised money through the local church to send Dee away to school. Maggie, however, remained at home and learned traditional skills from her family. At the time of the story, she is preparing to marry a local farmer.

Dee arrives wearing a gorgeous wrapper and accompanied by a young American Muslim man whose name Mrs. Johnson can't pronounce. Dee offers an African phrase of greeting, then, like a tourist, immediately starts snapping polaroids of her mother and sister and their house.

The main purpose of the visit, it turns out, is to appropriate some of the family's belongings, which Dee wants to turn into museum pieces. First, she claims the butter churn, still full of clabber, saying she's going to make the top of it into a centerpiece and do "something artistic" with the dasher. Maggie winces at this because she loves the churn and knows its whole history, but she barely protests.

Dee, however, is not finished yet; next, she asks for her grandmother's old patchwork quilts. Mrs. Johnson demurs, saying she has already promised the quilts to Maggie as a wedding gift. Dee angrily protests that Maggie will ruin the quilts by spreading them on beds--by putting them to "everyday use." Puzzled, the mother wonders what else you would do with quilts. "Hang them" replies Dee.

Mrs. Johnson looks at Maggie standing in the doorway, miserable but already resigned to her loss. In a sudden rush of almost religious feeling, she snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie.

Dee snaps, absurdly; "Your problem is you don't understand...your heritage!" and leaves. Maggie and her mother, relieved, spend the rest of the day dipping snuff and enjoying each other's company.

(the yellow words were the new words, which I learned)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyday_Use)