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Why has Dee assumed African dress, hairstyle, and name?

Dee has assumed an African-style dress and name as well as natural hair because she has become concerned with her heritage.  Of her new name, she tells Mama, "'I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.'"  Mama reminds her that she was named after her Aunt Dicie, who was named after her mother, who was named after her mother, but she cannot trace the name back further than the Civil War.  This seems to confirm, to Dee, that the name had something to do with slavery and thus not her real heritage or something worth preserving (despite the fact that several strong women in her family have had the name).  Thus, she seems to miss the point that her name is a mark of her heritage.


Dee does not think of heritage of something that one makes use of everyday; it is something to be preserved, not used.  It's as if Dee wants to prove that she has a certain kind of authenticity, and so she wants her grandmother's butter dish, the churn top, and the handmaid quilts, not so she can use them, as her family does, but so she can display and do "'something artistic'" with them.  With her name, her dress, and her hair, she seems to feel as though she is (re)creating a more authentic version of herself, but her lack of knowledge about where they've come from or who made them indicates that she really doesn't have the most sincere motivation.

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