Words I would use to describe Mama include: 1) Dreamer-in her description of meeting Dee on the Johnny Carson show, 2) Workhorse-able to, “work outside all day, clean a hog, and kill a bull calf ”, (Walker, 1943, p. 477), 3) Hero-due to the fact she pulled her daughter, Maggie from their burning home, 4) Mother-of two daughters, Dee and Maggie, 5) Obese- in reading her statement, “My fat keeps me hot in zero weather” (Walker, 1943, p. 477), 6) Uneducated-only went to school until second grade, 7) Religious-talks about singing church songs to herself, 8) Proud-of her heritage in discussing the quilt’s assembly and pieces especially in describing one piece that, “ was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War” (Walker, 1943,
In both these works, the mothers play the most important role in the development of the plot. They represent the pillars of strength and they are the ones that hold the family together and the hope alive. In Lorraine Hansberry's work, Mama is a widow, mother of two children and the head of the household: "There are some ideas we ain't going to have in this house. Not long as I am at the head of this family." (Hansberry 51) Mama is aware of the high position she is awarded in the family, since her husband is dead and she is left in care of the family. Qualities like independence and strength surround her and give her and air of authority. She takes charge when others hesitate and she gives courage to the insecure. "You just got strong willed children and it takes a strong woman like you to keep'em in hand, (Hansberry 52) her daughter-in-law tells her at one point. This symbolizes the love and respect she carries for her, but also the power that Mama radiates over the whole family.
She anticipates that soon her daughter Maggie will be married and she will be living peacefully alone. Mama decides that she will wait in the yard for her daughter Dee's arrival. Mama knows that her other daughter, Maggie, will be nervous throughout Dee's stay, self -conscious of her scars and burn marks and jealous of Dee's much easier life. Mama fantasizes about reunion scenes on television programs in which a successful daughter embraces the parents who have made her success possible.
Mawmaw is a brown hair brown eyed beautiful, yet fierce woman. She was born on August 18, 1947 making her 68 years old now. She was blessed with three beautiful children, two girls, and one boy. She also has nine grandchildren, with me being one of them, and spends a lot of time with them. Mama is married and has been married twice prior to the current marriage she's in now. She has four siblings and all, three brothers and one sister. This making Mawmaw the second oldest, yet she has always been the oldest when it comes to wisdom and responsibility of her siblings. With having a life that wasn't the easiest, she made the best of it and definitely has a good story to tell now.
As the eldest person in the Younger household, Mama is the authoritative figure and has the most traditional views. Being a part of the GI Generation, she shares the
Although Mama is usually kind and patient with her family, there are times when she especially struggles to connect with her children. Her traits of being caring and protective can sometimes seem overbearing, as if she is just nagging, but it is just because she loves her family. She is especially overprotective of her grandson Travis, which she makes clear
Mama who is the narrator is a woman who can do any chore that a man can, because of the way she is described. "In real life I am a lar...
She believes in keeping her heritage strong and alive. It can be assumed that she tried to instill her values in both of her daughters, Maggie and Dee. Even though she loves both of her daughters, she knows that her oldest daughter, Dee, has different views and perspectives. Dee believed that the quilts should be preserved; Mama believed that the everyday use of the heirlooms were acceptable.
Mama is the head of the house. She dreams that her family will be happy and that her children have the best life they can have. She does what ever she can to make her children’s dreams come true.
Mama, as a member of an older generation, represents the suffering that has always been a part of this world. She spent her life coexisting with the struggle in some approximation to harmony. Mama knew the futility of trying to escape the pain inherent in living, she knew about "the darkness outside," but she challenged herself to survive proudly despite it all (419). Mama took on the pain in her family in order to strengthen herself as a support for those who could not cope with their own grief. Allowing her husband to cry for his dead brother gave her a strength and purpose that would have been hard to attain outside her family sphere. She was a poor black woman in Harlem, yet she was able to give her husband permission for weakness, a gift that he feared to ask for in others. She gave him the right to a secret, personal bitterness toward the white man that he could not show to anyone else. She allowed him to survive. She marveled at his strength, and acknowledged her part in it, "But if he hadn't had...
To begin, Mama is a large, big-boned women with rough, man-working hands. She was raised with no education and wears overalls during the day. Mama has two daughters named Maggie and Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo (Dee). Mama is a dynamic character due to her changing in the story.
The poem I have created was a personal event that has happened to me in my life. I described my feelings towards my mom and dad using positive and negative connotative words. The reason I used positive connotative words to describe my mom was because she means the world to me and has raised four boys all on her own. The opposite was true about my dad who abandoned us, thus I tried to describe him using negative connotative words. One of the connotative words I used to describe my mom was “mom.” The effect of using this word is if I would have just put mother to me it doesn’t show that you love her it just means she is just the women who gave birth to you. However, using mom to me shows that I actually love her and she actually cares for me.
Mama is a powerful, strong witted person. She has a lot of control in this play and dominates as a woman character. This is unusual because this is usually a male’s position in life. She is a woman, “who has adjusted to many things in life and overcome many more, her face is full of strength”. In this play she is illustrated as taking over for the head of the family and controls the lives of everyone in her house. Rules are followed to Mama’s extent. She controls what is said and done in her house. After Walter yells, “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY!” (70). Mama responds in a strong tone of voice saying, “I don’t ‘low no yellin’ in this house, Walter Lee, a...
Let’s take a look at the dreams of Lena “mama” the matriarch of the family who is humble and yet proud and strong woman. And, like many
Mama initially lacks self-esteem, imagining herself as “a hundred pounds lighter, [her] skin like an uncooked barley pancake” in her mental depiction of meeting Dee (Walker 2). Though Mama’s narrations would have the reader believe these thoughts show Dee’s disapproval of her mother, the fact that they represent just thoughts and not something directly stated by Dee herself show that these expectations reflect society’s expectations for women more than Dee’s expectations for her mother. Throughout the piece, however, Mama gains more confidence, even able to stand up for herself against Dee when asserting that Maggie should have their family quilt. Farrell, who differs from other critics of “Everyday Use’ in claiming that Dee represents not a villain but an alternative mindset in the work, notes here that in standing up for herself, Mama actually assimilates to Dee’s most defining trait of self-confidence, validating Dee’s opinion narratively even as Mama spurns it. This gradual acquisition of confidence accompanies Mama’s realization of the value of community and her family to her- her self-confidence and identity spawn from both “the acquisition of an individual voice” and “integration into a community” (Tuten). By highlighting this method of growth, Walker also highlights the value of honoring and appreciating from where one comes. Connecting with
My aunt was an accommodating nurse a lot of people loved. When she died she was 50 years old. Today she could have been 53 years old. She left behind 3 sweet boys who broke my heart to watch them see their mom leave. She was an average sized women about 5’5” with really thin short dark chocolate brown hair. Her skin was as rough as sandpaper, because she was a hard working women. I remember she had a medium sized table in her bedroom full of perfumes and lotions and every-time I hugged her she smelled like Victoria Secret scents. I also remember her always wearing this purple sweater my mom gave to her one year. She wore that sweater everywhere she went. In most of the pictures I have with her she comes out wearing the purple sweater.