Maggie is a more traditional person than Dee. While Dee is away at school Maggie is the one at home. The guilt represents the African American experience because it is a piece of uniform that their Grandfather used to wear during the Civil War. Dee wants to take the quilt for public display, but the narrator prefers to give it to Maggie, who will wear it as a symbol of taking on the traditions that come with it and to take on the heritage.
Lessing's childhood involved going out into nature and enjoying it as best as she could until her mother would tell her to stop and be a proper woman. Lessing lived after World War I from which his father suffered injuries that prevented him from walking again.
I believe the theme of Antigone that the above events reflect is the path of morality versus the path of civil law and order. She felt the need to give her brother a proper burial, regardless of the laws Creon may have imposed on the citizens.
