To Forget Where You Came From”, using Psychoanalytic Theory to analyze “Dee” in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”

Alice Walker’s piece depicts a nontraditional family who struggles to exist in their own image. In this piece, the mother gives her readers an account of their struggle to survive as a family. When analyzing the story so as to gain a better understanding of the characters it was obvious that these characters are all dealing with issues identified by psychoanalytic theory. In this piece however, Dee’s character issues will be analyzed and we will establish how she indirectly affect her family members.

Dee appears to be struggling with an insecure sense of self a core issue described in Tyson's piece. We see her as a very confused person who does not know her true self and is somewhat in search of it. In the story Dee is described as the privileged one as opposed to her sister, Maggie, who neither had equal opportunities like her sister did nor was as nearly as beautiful. Dee’s mother as we were told was poor but like every other mother she found a way to ensure Dee’s success. Living away from her family, Dee eventually changes her name to "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”, claiming that Dee is “dead” (Walker, 278). She continues, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker, 278). It is quite evident that she hates or heritage or is ashamed of it. Therefore when visiting her family who is responsible for her path to success, she presents herself in a completely new image, one that is distant from her true and real heritage.

Dee can also be described as having a fear if intimacy. This is due to the mere fact that she stays away from her family. We also see this when she arrives at home, her fiancé openly and warmly attempts to greet her family while Dee coldly brushes them off and insults them with her new, foreign name. She does not hug them, shake their hands or simple kiss them. Indeed, Dee fears something deep within herself, one that she is afraid to let out.

Despite all that is happening, Dee deals with her issues by building up her own defenses. She tend to be in denial, for she wants to believe that she was not once poor and that her mother had not bend her back backwards so as to give her the life she now proudly shows off. Hence, Dee avoids visiting her family because of those memories left behind, including the house fire. In an attempt to displace her own experiences, Dee, is negative towards her heritage, her mother and her sister.

Dee’s issues obviously affect others around her. Her sister Maggie, who also has a sense of insecurity and Dee, is somewhat responsible for this. This is traced back to the house fire that occurred decades ago which is responsible for the bodily burns she now wears. Due to this, Maggie is jealous of her sister, as her mother states, “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes” (Walker, 274).  Maggie’s feelings stem deeper from just her appearance, it is believed that she is insecure about who she is because of the way her sister treats her less than a person. Dee constantly shuns her sister and talks down to both her sister and mother even if she is aware that they do not understand what she speaks of.

Dee’s character also impacts her mother causing her to develop a fear of abandonment. Although her daughter is supposed to be getting married, Mama still hopes for long term attachment to her daughter. It is as though she fears that Maggie cannot survive beyond their enclosed world. But can we blame her, when the only daughter she has helped to become who she is today has completely turned her backs on them. There is also the tendency that mama is avoiding the readers by failing to express her true feelings. She is hereby telling us about her children’s issues but yet she does not let us in to her soul, so that we can sympathize with her. It is as though she too is ashamed of who her daughter has now become and it appears as though she may have regretted how she unfairly raised her daughters.