Cory Cresswell
John Michael Moran
ENG 2 1302-073
28 July 2013
The Horrible Dee In the story “Everyday Use” there is a young daughter, of a caring mother, named Dee. Dee is the sister to a sweet girl named Maggie. However, the sweetness and caringly characteristics of the two ladies did not transfer over to Dee. Dee is a very hurtful, spiteful, unsocial, and insensitive woman not only to her mother but to her sister as well. Dee grew up with only her mother and sister in a small wooden house out in the country. Her mother had to work all day like a man and still be there for her children as a mother when they needed her. Life was probably not the easiest for the young Dee but her actions only made them more difficult. Dee was always the better looking sister, she was more intelligent then both her mother and Maggie, and she were also a very materialistic woman even though her family could not afford these things.
When Dee was just a child the family’s house was burnt to the ground in a horrendous fire. For no reason specified Dee “hated that house.” (Pg. 1088) While her sister had her “arms sticking to her mother, with her hair smoking and dress falling off from being charred in the fire” (Pg. 1088) Dee just “stood off in the distance around her gum tree” (Pg. 1088) not caring whether the house was on fire or if her family was safe and okay. After she graduated high school her mother and the church sent Dee to Augusta to go to school in order to further her education. After her education Dee showed no appreciation for what her mother did for her, when she read to her mother and sister she would “force words, lies, and other folks’ habits while washing both of them into a river of make-believe. (Pg.1089)
During her high school years Dee was a very unsocial person and people were not found of her probably because of her horrible attitude. While away in Augusta Dee wrote home saying how she would never let her friends meet her family because she is ashamed of them. However heartless this may seem, this did not bother Maggie or her mother because “Dee never had any friends.” Even though Dee was so unsociable she somehow found a man while at school and did indeed bring him home. When Dee returned she hurt her mother more then she had ever done in her life. Dee changed her name to Wangero because she “couldn’t bear Dee any longer being named after the people she oppressed.” Wangero was so tired of being a part of her family she broke the multi generation name of Dee who went as far back as her mother could remember.
Now I cannot personally think of a reasonable reason on why a child would act such a way her whole life but someone could possible say it was due to her horrible childhood in the circumstances she was brought up in. As I mentioned before Dee was born into a very unfortunate single mother family with a low income and bad living experiences. Even if this could be used as an excuse for Dee’s horrible behavior, it could only really be used as an excuse for her the way she treats