Notes

Dee - african roots, ignores american roots and heritage
Mama and Maggie - embrace african and american roots and heritage,

by characterizing Mama, the mother of Dee and Maggie and the narrator of the story. Strong imagery is used immediately in the first paragraph to illustrate Mama and Maggie’s connection and attachment to nature, “It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room.”(238) This shows that Mama’s yard is not only a place of living, her property, but is a representation of her feelings about herself and her position. Mama describes herself with a similar recognition and understanding to that of her environment: “[She is] a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands … [She] can kill a hog as mercilessly as a man.”(239) Mama accepts herself how she is.
Mama’s daughter Maggie is illustrated as shy and scared, bearing scars from a long-passed fire that took the family’s previous home. Mama loves Maggie, but looks forward to Maggie’s marriage to John Thomas, after which Mama can relax and sing hymns at home. Mama states about Maggie that, “She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by.” (241) Maggie is used to Dee having what she wants, Mama having said about her, “...like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her.” (247) Maggie understands her family’s heritage, like her mother and unlike Dee, having learned to quilt from Grandma Dee and Aunt Dee.