Character Analysis Of Meek Tie To Mabsoot Mattie

Meek Mattie to Mabsoot Mattie: A Character Analysis of Mattie Campbell

Mattie Campbell enters into Joe Turner’s Come and Gone with a knock in the first scene of the first act of the play. She is described as a “…young woman of 26 whose attractiveness is hidden under the weight and concerns of a dissatisfied life” (1.1). Jeremy Furlow, a fellow tenant, remarks that she “… [has] a nice look to her…like [she] has men standing at her door” (1.1). From this, the reader begins to form their image of what Mattie looks like- a young, pretty African-American woman. However, there is not much else said about Mattie outright, so the reader must form the rest of her character through the things she says and her actions. From the general way Mattie talks about herself, one gets the impression that she does not necessarily think highly of herself. For example, the only thing she talks in-depth about in the first few scenes of the play is her undying need to find her lost love, Jack Carver. It is clear that she is very lost without him, and does not feel like she has worth or direction without him around. Thankfully, by the end of the play, she is shown

It is common knowledge that women and African-Americans both are very often discriminated against, and being both in this time period was surely difficult. Because of her race, the reader knows she likely feels even more societally out of place than a white woman at the time would. Not only is Mattie carrying around of being left by her long-time love, losing both the children she had ever carried, but she also was probably having to deal with struggles of finding work where she was paid and treated fairly. Moreover, she struggles with finding herself without a man by her side, a lesson one likes to think she learns in the denouement of the