The Mammy Caricature Character Analysis

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When I was a little girl I often saw the caricature of a big black woman holding a broom I was always curious as of who she was and what she portrayed. I quickly came to find out that this would be the mammy character. She was characterized to care for her white family and be pleased by doing so . Even though the mammy is well loved and has considerable power with her white family, she still knew her place as a servant. Annie played a big role as a black maid in imitation of life . Even though she was given an immense role not overshadowed by a white actress, she was still stereotyped by playing a mammy role. The mammy character was seen as a good figure to the whites but it was seen as a disgraceful one for the african american women. …show more content…

Black women were free only in a sense. They were typecast in real life into providing domestic services for affluent white families” (The Mammy Caricature). The mammy caricature basically was an image that was given to mammy 's but in reality mammy 's hated their jobs and were unhappy in the way they were treated “the mammy caricature was more a myth than accurate portrayal” (The mammy Caricature). Aunt jemima was another representation of a mammy in Clinging to mammy The faithful slave in Twentieth-century America “Aunt jemima trademark cemented an idea of what a mammy looked and acted like for generations of consumers” (Micki …show more content…

Even though mammies were seen to have a happy attitude they weren 't content with their job as they had to work from sunrise to sunrise .“Her work was less strenuous than the physical labor of other slave women, but her hours were long and there were little times for leisure”(Parkhurst 354). Mammies kept the smile and joy because they were expected to keep a certain image. It was every white person 's dream to have a loyal happy and hardworking mammy. “ A mammy was considered self respecting , independent , loyal forward gentle captious affectionate ,true strong warm hearted, compassionate hearted fearless popular brave good pious” ( Parkhurst

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