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"She had a few. Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after school. Nervous girls who never laughed. Impressed with her they worshiped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye. She read to them."
This description of Dee’s friends, which Mama offers after explaining that her daughter will never bring friends home to visit, reflects the sense of power that having an education can inspire. The fact that Dee reads to her friends suggests that she has control over the information that they hear, placing her in a position of authority. Given that a similar scenario plays out between Dee and her family, this unbalanced power dynamic highlights one of the consequences of unequal access to education.
"'Wa-su-zo-Tean-o!' she ways, coming on in that gliding way the dress makes her move."
As Dee emerges from the car, she offers this foreign greeting which Mama and Maggie do not understand. This choice allows her to flaunt her education and her supposed worldliness while simultaneously distancing herself from her family. The sense of authority Dee feels as a result of her experiences away from home inspire her to adopt the phrase as a part of her new identity, although her performative use of it emphasizes her lack of a true cultural education.
