Discuss character development in Everyday Use - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages She even decides to change her name, though its history may be traced back to the Civil War “I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me”. Instead, she chooses name Wangero, which her mother finds difficult to pronounce. What Dee desires is to become a new person.
It becomes obvious that Dee’s mother and sister worship her. It is noticeable from the first lines. “Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort” acknowledges her mother. What she wants is to achieve her daughter’s approval. At the same time, Dee is unlikely to desire it. What she seeks seems to be attention and personal meaning. Even more, she seems to behave like a selfish, arrogant, and insensitive person.
The story is told on behalf of Mama, that is why readers are not given an opportunity to trace the way Dee thinks. Instead, readers are offered to judge her by her actions, words, and relations to others. For example, these lines “At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was”. It says a lot about a girl who comes from a family which leads a labor-intensive life. “In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” that is how Mama describes herself. At the very beginning readers understand that Dee is totally different.
She wants to be a part of idealistic Africa. Consequently, she rejects actual experience and severe realities that Afro-Americans face. That is what unites her with Hakim-a-barber. This couple stands in stark contrast to Dee’s mother and sister. At the same time, readers may only guess what kind of relationships Dee has with this man. “They didnt tell me, and I didnt ask, whether Wangero (Dee) had really gone and married him” comments Mama.
It is clear that Maggie and Mama cannot let themselves live in a world of illusions. At the same time, rustic realism of their world becomes a ...Download file to see next pagesRead More