ure. (293). From the beginning as a reader we already get a sense that Dee has a bit of an upper hand in the family. The mother wants to be how Dee wants her to be, and Maggie just kind of cowers in the corner looking like a lame dog. But why do they cower to Dee as if she has some kind of power? Why is what Dee wants and thinks so important?During one of the mothers flashbacks we are told a story of a fire. She says:Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggies arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes. Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflected in them. (293).So the fire was a pretty dramatic one and Maggie was obviously effected by it. But where was Dee. If the mother and Maggie were caught in the fire, where was Dee? According to the mother:And Dee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as se watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot chimney. (293).Dee was just standing there, watching her mother, sister, and home be burned in a fire. She was not crying; she was not yelling for help; and she was not doing anything about the fire; she was just standing there concentrating on watching her mother and sister burn down to the ground. The mother even asks the question, Why dont you dance around the ashes? (293). It is like we get the sense that Dee is almost happy about the fire. I mean the mom tells us that she never liked the house in the first place, and this now makes sure that she is more beautiful then Maggie, because Maggie is now burned.After the fire, the mother and Maggie raise money to send Dee to school in Augusta. Now, they just had their house burn down. It was not a nice house to begin with. Maggie and the mother also burn in the fire. Somehow it does not seem normal that maggie raises money for Dee to go to school when she has j...
