Dee and the Camera

Dee and The Camera

In the short storie Everyday Use by Alice Walker we are introduced to the character Dee who later informs use that she had changed her name to "Wangero".

She is the daughter of the mother in the story they call Mama. Her name is never mentioned in the story. I found Everyday Use a very nice story to read, but after Dee was introduced in the story I became iratated so to speak.

Dee seemed selfish and acted like she had little respect for her mothers belongings. Not long after we get to know Dee she introduces her boyfriend, Hakim-a-barber. He is decribed as a short man with a long beard. The story takes place in the 1970s so that may explain why she has such a sour attitude towards her god given name. She thinks she was named after the people who opressed her. During that time period there was a good amount of Black Power movement being introduced but the narrator cleary states she was named after her Aunty Dicie Dee.

She probally assumed that Dee was the name a slave ower gave her Aunty and that was not her Auntys god given name. Like in the movie Roots when the slave owner changes Kunta Kintes name to Toby. Although Dee is trying to show her African American cultures she shows great intrest in the butter churn and quilts which were made by her once slaved African American family members.

This is where the story gets irratating. Dee to me sounded selfish and as if she was entitled to have the butter churn. She says that she "wants the churn and the dasher too". She did not even have the common manners to ask her mother for the things she just states that she wants them and will have them. You should have respect for your mother and her belonging. Not act like they should be given to you on a silver platter.

Lets go back in the story when Dee first arives to her mother and sister Maggies house. As her mother starts to geet up the greet her Dee tell her to not get up as she turns and goes back to the car. She turns back around with an old 70s polaroid camera. It is said that she takes picture after picture of her mother sitting in front of the old run down farm house with her youngest daughter Maggie hiding behind her. She never takes a picture without the house being included in it. She also get a picture as a cow comes around the corner of the house grazing. After that she then places the camera back in the car.

Whats the reason behind her taking those pictures? When Dee arives to her mothers home its not like an everyday visit most people have with their parents. Dee left her family years ago and instead of a visit she my see this as a tourist trip.

Another reason could be that the photo is a collection item. Dee left home years ago and is a college educated woman. When she comes home and see her mother and baby sister in the front of and