Walker's Dee

You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. At first this is used when Dee leaves home to go to school (175). Dee’s main goal is to show how far she has come from her roots.

Dee also uses physical distance to separate herself from her family. But from the way you and Mama still live you’d never know it. Then later Dee writes a letter home including, "no matter where we [Maggie and their Mother] ‘choose’ to live, she [Dee] will manage to come see us. This tells Maggie and her Mother that they can not depend on Dee to provide for them and that she is ashamed of them. The other object that Dee wants are some quilts that Dee refused to accept when she first left home that are now promised to Maggie. That Dee "never takes a shot without making sure the house is included" (177) implies that she wants to be able to capture her former life on film. (181)

She is judging herself to be superior to her family. She is unable to accept these artifacts as they are; she feels she must change them to fit into her new life. But she will never bring her friends" (176). " She uses a Polaroid camera to capture pictures of her mother and sister.