In this essay we will be contextualizing the extract on page 175 in the novel, Purple Hibiscus in order to discuss patriarchy in the novel. We will also be using other examples in the novel to state why that character is a patriarch. Contextualizing is defined as, to think about something or provide information about something that needs to be discussed. Patriarchy is defined as a system in the social world were males are seen as the person to hold the primary power, these people stretch from fathers in the family to priests of the community. In the novel, Purple Hibiscus we are introduced to a few patriarchs.
“Me and Ruth done made some sacrifices for you – why can’t you do something for the family?” (Hansberry 1.1.118). The Younger family has grown up without much and when the father dies, he leaves an inheritance that can get the family into a comfortable living position. The only problem is that they all want to use the money for different reasons. Each character wants to make their own dreams come true. They do not want to sacrifice their own dreams to please the others. Unwilling to make a sacrifice proves to bring more animosity in a family as shown in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry through conflict involving money and how the characters handle their actions.
Dee is a girl who lived with her mom and her sister Maggie, but she wasn’t like them at all, she was different than her sister and her mother. Mama was collecting money to take Dee to school in Augusta. Dee liked to be fashionable, she always wanted nice things.
Both protagonists believe in their dreams, and have high hopes for the future. In the play, Walter’s mother receives a paycheck due to her husband passing, and is unsure of what she should do with it. Walter Lee fantasizes about this money, believing he would become rich once that money was invested into business. However, these fantasies come into conflict with Mama’s when she buys a house with some of the money. The poem’s protagonist also recalls to
Parenting is never perfect. Every parents questions whether they are raising their child correctly, and no parent ever feels like they are doing the right thing. With no clear distinction between good and bad parenting, it is usually left to personal preferences and judgements to decide which parents have adequately raised their children and which have failed. When a parent so call “fails,” often it is the children with their strong will and determination to survive that collectively raise themselves. In Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, Leonie, one of the narrators and the mother of another narrator, Jojo, is not the most caring, hands-on mother, but is loving of her children nevertheless. Leonie is not just the failed mother most make her out to be because her thoughts are in the right place, trying the best she can given her own circumstances, but her past and her own childhood haunts her too
What would you do if you were told your dream would never come true? Dreams are what people hold onto to motivate us to achieve our goals. The Youngers are a poor African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago. With an opportunity to escape from poverty comes in the form of a $10,000 life insurance check that the matriarch of the family receives upon her husband 's death. Each of the adult members of the family has an idea as to what he or she would like to do with this money. As the play progresses, the Youngers clash over their competing dreams. In “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, the role of the hero stays the same in Act I and Act II, but changes in Act III depending on the overall dramatic situation, yet theme of
Anne Moody’s memoir Coming of Age in Mississippi, tells the story of Moody as a civil rights activist in the Jim Crow South. Growing up and spending much of her life in Mississippi, Moody grows thick skin to the horrors of being African American during the 1940s and the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s to 1960s. Although Moody supports numerous other Civil Rights activists, she develops a dynamic opinion that is shaped from her life experiences. Moody has a raw and realistic view on race relations that often gives her little hope that change will happen. She comes of age quickly as a driven, young lady. Although Moody is motivated to change the injustices between blacks and whites, Moody grows into an activist that often is pessimistic towards progression and
Mama’s potted plant symbolizes many things, but the most prevalent is family. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raison in the Sun, Hansberry uses a plant to represent family. Just like any living thing, a plant needs to grow, to be watered, to be cultivated, and to be nurtured. Here are some examples of how Hansberry symbolizes family with a plant.
One of the main protagonists, Mama, is telling her son the reasons for what she did to help her family’s struggle. She says, “When it gets like that in life-you just got to do something different, push on out and do something bigger....” (588). The character Mama gets a check from the insurance company for $10,000 dollars due to her husband’s death and she doesn't know what to do with it. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Mama is motivated to/by the chance to get her family a house. This is seen by the actions she takes to get to her goal, statements she makes towards her family members, and how she responds to her family when they are troubled.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play, which consists of three acts for a total of six scenes. From the very beginning, the plot line begins with the Younger family waking up, going about their morning as they normally do. The family living in the small apartment consists of Mama, Beneatha, her daughter, Walter, her son, Ruth, Walter’s wife, and Travis, Walter and Ruth’s son. The apartment that accommodates this family consists of a small kitchen, containing one small window, a living room, which also serves as Travis’ room, and two bedrooms, one for Walter and Ruth, the other shared by Mama and Beneatha. In the kitchen window lays a potted plant, second to only family in Mama’s most prized possessions. Mama cares for the plant by feeding, watering and checking all through the day on it to make sure it was still doing well. She also does this for the family. Mama always wants the best for them and would do anything to keep them happy and well. Mama uses the plant as her fuel to always put the family first and to remember her dreams, as well as remind her family of theirs (Shmoop Editorial Team). Throughout the play, Mama’s plant symbolizes many things to the Younger family.
The setting of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” reveals important aspects about the family in many ways. Without the enriched setting provided to the reader by Walker, this story would have had no foundation on which to be built.
Alice Walker’s Everyday Use (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature Sound and Structure 11th ed [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 166-173) is a short story told by the mother of two daughters, Mama. The story tells the tale of the return of Mama’s oldest daughter, Dee, and the problems that Dee’s return causes for Mama and her youngest daughter, Maggie. This short story includes humor and irony, displays detailed characterization, and portrays a very effective point of view. These three literary elements contribute to this story by giving insight into the past and the true personalities of the characters, and the way the characters have changed over time.
Mama, who is the narrator of the story, stood in the yard while waiting for her daughter Dee’s arrival. Dee is the object of jealousy and agitation among her family members. She is like anybody else who searches to find who they really are. Mama knows that her other daughter, Maggie, will be self-conscious of her scars and burns. She also struggles with jealousy, due to the feeling that Dee has an easier life. Maggie is a nervous and unstable individual; she is a figure of purity, unstained by selfishness or complex emotional needs. Since she was burned as a child, people are not able to see her generous and sympathetic nature. People look at her scarred and “ugly” appearance and judge her instantly.
Many people in the Younger family thought that not taking Mr. Linder's money was a mistake. There are many different views on what they should have done but it changed how they lived either way. I believe that the decision that they made was right because they needed to stand
The only woman in the world who will still cradle you in her arms even if you've stabbed her loving heart is your mother.The short story “Teenage Wasteland” by Anne Tyler is about guilt and reveals mother’s feelings towards her children. A loving mother will feel guilty for anything that happens to her children, and even for that how they feel.