What does Mama's dream of being on Johnny Carson's show illustrate about her relationship to Dee/Wangero

Although Mama seems to accept her reality, her day dream vignette has her conforming to a much more socially accepted definition of beauty. In her dream, Mama is light-skinned, thinner, and witty: she displays all the traits that white middle class America find desirable in a "pre-Oprah" African-American woman. It is worth noting that the woman in this dream is not a product of Mama’s own conception of beauty but rather a manifestation of what Dee would admire in a “beautiful” mother. Although Mama is anxious over the wounds Dee will reopen upon her arrival, she still has the latent desire to be accepted and respected by her eldest daughter, and the world in which Mama believes she exists.