Before even saying hi to her mother, she grabs a camera from the trunk, and quickly lines up picture after picture of Maggie, her mom, the house, and every pitiable detail she can find.
This very moment she becomes a stranger to her family, an outsider who sees her old life as some strange existence, and her heritage becomes a meaningless fashion. In a way you can say she loses her identity in the search for her self. .
"Well I" say, "Dee".
"No mama", she says, "not Dee, Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo".
"what happened to Dee" I wanted to know.
"She's dead" Wangero said. "I couldn't bear it longer, being named after the people who oppress me.".
What Dee do not understand is that changing name is not going to bring her any closer to her roots, if she rejects her past. I think this is one of the major points in this short story. The author describe and criticise how many young black Americans try to adapt a white way of life at the same time as they search for their identity, and this alienate them to their heritage, which the camera symbolise. .
Another important evidence of the two sisters" search for an identity, besides the camera, is an old quilt done by the mom's mother. It is a neatly handcrafted quilt made out of scraps of dresses and old shirts that belonged to Dee's grand and great grandparents. The Quilt could be seen as a literary picture of the two sisters heritage. Maggie is the one who knows how to quilt, she uses her heritage, while Dee is just trendy. Maybe Maggie's backwardness are qualities that are needed to carry on the skills of her ancestors?.
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When Dee discovers that her mother has promised Maggie the quilt, she is horrified;.
"Maggie cant appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She"d probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use.".
Mom hopes she will, and does not bring up how she had offered Dee a quilt before she went to college, and how she turned it down because quilts were old fashioned.
