Authors use direct and indirect characterization to explain characters personalities. In the story Everyday Use, Alice Walker uses indirect characterization to describe Dee.
She shows that Dee is greedy, hypocritical, and mean. The first example of Dee being greedy is when she walks through the house asking her mom if she can have the various items in the house that she pointed out. She wants the best of life, the luxuries and riches that make life good. The time she ran to the foot of the bed to thumb through the chest to ask her mother if she could have the quilts made it seem like she was preparing to ask.
She knew that Maggie wanted the quilts. The example of Dee being a hypocrite is easy to point out. She changed her name to become closer to her African roots. It is ironic she goes on about preserving her “heritage”, although she had earlier shunned it as old-fashioned.
She even had the nerve to claim her family knew nothing of her heritage. She also believes she is better than rest of her family because of her education. Dee was very mean, she often downed her sister for lack of education. She hates her mothers culture. Dee went to the city despite her mothers advice not to, and changed to her heritage to her African roots. She demanded that her mother give her the blankets so she could preserve them.
One very rude remark she made was Maggies brain is like an elephantss she said laughing. Greedy, hypocritical, and mean are three adjectives that describe the character Dee. Deesmother narrates the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker and shows the readers these negative traits of Dee. She does this through Dees words and actions.
