Characterization of Everyday Use

The Characterization of Dee in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” The process of characterization is that which every author uses to make, build, or create a character. In most cases this process is carried out in three ways: 1) the author has the character say things that tell us what kind of person he or she is, 2) the author has the character do things that reveal what sort of person we are reading about, and 3) the author also often has other people reveal things about the character. In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” Dee is characterized by what she does, what she says, and what others say about her. Dee is characterized by what she does. When Dee first gets to her mother’s home, she gets a camera and takes pictures. When she is taking the pictures, she is making sure the house is in every picture. Here, Walker is characterizing Dee as wanting to expose her family. Almost as if she will go and brag to her friends that that is where she came from and to show how differently she has grown from that. Walker also characterizes Dee from two other different things she does. The first is when Dee goes through her mother’s trunk without asking. The second is when her mother was going to touch the quilts and Dee moved in the way so she couldn’t reach them. These two examples show that Walker characterizes Dee as being disrespectful to her mother. Dee is further characterized by what she says. When Ms. Johnson calls Dee by her name, she corrects her and says, “Not ‘Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!” (p. 258) Ms. Johnson responds by asking what happened to ‘Dee’ and Wangero replies, “She’s dead. I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after people who oppress me.” (p. 258) Walker is characterizing Dee as unappreciative to her family and heritage. Another thing Dee says is when she is asking her mother for the quilts made by her Grandma. When Ms. Johnson tells Dee that she had promised to give the quilts to Maggie, Dee says, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d