Stories of Black Women - Assignment Example

Mama criticizes Dee’s urge to complying with the modernistic standards of dressing and styling. She consistently maintains a critical and sarcastic tone while talking about Dee. Often, she first describes Dee’s attitude and then compliments it in a “so-what” tone. Mama talks about Maggie in a compassionate and sympathetic tone. In order to describe the gait of Maggie, Mama says that in her gait, Maggie resembles “a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him” (Walker).

By using “my” with Maggie, Mama tends to express Maggie’s belongingness to her, as if Maggie is a very good girl and that she feels proud to be her mother. The critical and sore tone of Mama abruptly converts into soft and possessive when she shifts from discussing Dee to discussing Maggie.