In the play Ruined, Mama Nadi symbolizes tough love, as seen through her encounters with the characters Christian, Sophie, and Salima. Mama Nadi puts up a tough persona, but she also has a soft spot for several characters. A playful love-hate relationship is introduced in the opening scenes between Mama Nadi and Christian. Furthermore, Christian introduces Mama Nadi to Samlia and Sophie and there is an automatic sense of bitterness from Mama Nadi towards the two girls. This bitterness later evolves into compassion and tough love, because Mama Nadi feels a connection and a sense of responsibility towards the girls after finding out that they are no different from her. Although it may seem like at times Mama Nadi is only acting for her own selfish reasons, it is later revealed in the play that she does these things to protect others. There are several instances in the play that may indicate that Mama Nadi is a selfish woman, …show more content…
This scene demonstrates the theme of tough love that Mama Nadi symbolizes. Sophie is scolded for stealing money from Mama Nadi so that Sophie can see that she could be out in the streets continually being raped, but instead Mama Nadi took her in to protect her. It can be inferred that Mama Nadi did not have children of her own, which is why she treats the girls at the brothel like her children, especially Sophie. Due to her situation, Sophie cannot be a prostitute in the brothel like the rest of the girls. Mama Nadi did not have to take Sophie in because she has no use business wise, but because of the fact that Sophie is ruined, Mama Nadi takes her in and makes her the singer and the accountant of her bar. Mama Nadi is a character that mainly cares about her business, which is also why she is very protective over her bar. The idea of tough love is used by Mama Nadi towards Sophie so that she can learn to not betray those who help
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
The plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun, deal with the love, honor, and respect of family. In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda, the caring but overbearing and over protective mother, wants to be taken care of, but in A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, as she is known, is the overseer of the family. The prospective of the plays identify that we have family members, like Amanda, as overprotective, or like Mama, as overseers. I am going to give a contrast of the mothers in the plays.
By examining the narrative voice as well as the cultural restraints placed on them, readers can see the sexist culture in the novel and that the novel itself does not necessarily advocate this misogyny. Yunior, a Dominican man, is the overall narrator of the novel, so readers essentially see everything through his masculine eye. When discussing a brief fling with Lola, Oscar’s sister, Yunior says, “Even those nights after I got jumped she wouldn’t let me steal on her ass for nothing. So you can sleep in my bed but you can’t sleep with me?” (Diaz 169) His question suggests that it is his right to sleep with her, and his discussion of Lola herself objectifies her by noting only her body and her refusal to use it. This objectification is clearly sexist, but it is a reflection of the narrative voice, Yunior, not of Lola. Yunior will casually refer to a woman as “a bitch” (Diaz 183), which is clearly demeaning, but it is a man’s view and does not reflect on the substance of the women. It shows readers the culture he was raised in, not an actual portrayal of the women, illustrating a misogynist society but not a misogynistic novel. In the Dominican Republic, gender-based violence is the fourth leading cause of death, hinting at the overall problems caused by the hyper-sexualized nature of the country. Sociologist Denise Paiewonsky
Mama is a good example of an extremely optimistic character in the play. She always sees the best of every situation. At times the situation may seem completely hopeless to the audience. Yet, she never gives up. Mama has always dreamed of owning a house, she has always wanted to move her family out of the “ghetto”. Finally, she gets the chance to do so; she gets an important amount of money from the insurance company. She decides to use that money to make a down payment on a house. But her dreams are rapidly crushed; her son, Walter, has lost all of the money in an investment. Although she is extremely angry at first she does not give up. She decides that perhaps they can clean up the place they currently live in. They can add new furniture and perhaps even new curtains. The following quote perfectly illustrative Mama’s optimism: “I sees things differently now. Been thinking ‘bout some things we could do to fix this place up some. […] Why this place be looking fine. Cheer us all up so that we forget trouble ever come… […] Sometimes you just got to know when to give up some things… and hold on to what you got …” (p140) Mama is a really strong and important character in the play. Due to her hopefulness she is able to hold her family together till the end.
In the short story, "Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid, the character of the mother can be seen as tyrannical. This oppressive trait of hers is reiterated several times throughout this story. It is first displayed in her initial remarks, rather than asking her daughter to do things, she lists things in a robotic manner, "Wash the white clothes on Monday, wash the colored clothes on Tuesday." Not only is she robotic, but she appears to believe that she has been sent to save her daughter from promiscuity. Her narcissistic viewpoint of being a savior is one that is consistent with that of a tyrant. This perspective is evident through commands such as "try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." She abuses her parental power
Women were represented in different ways throughout the movie Metropolis, but the underlying theme was women were seen as purely sexual. Maria was seen as the nurturer in the film, but also as a sexual object. She was the one who preached for peace and harmony down in the catacombs to the workers. Maria was also the nurturing maternal figure that was seen walking into the garden with all of the poor children. The vamp, on the other hand, was portrayed blatantly as a sexual object. This whole movie was seen through the eyes of the male perspective, which usually portrays women as sexual objects, and robs them of any identity. Lang shows Frederson as having fear of femininity which involves women's emotion and nurturing.
The characters of Nana and Mariam show the archetype of a mother by sacrificing to make their children’s life better. Towards the beginning of the book Nana describes Mariam’s birth to Mariam and mentions, “ I cut the chord between us myself. That’s why I had a knife.”(11). As Nana mentioned she sacrificed throughout her pregnancy though the pain and separated the umbilical chord herself because she wanted her child to have the best chance that she could. She also mentions the knife, which could have been use to kill the baby, similar to what Laila almost did with the rusty bicycle spoke. In addition, the knife could have been used to kill herself to end her suffering. Nevertheless, Nana does not carry out this plan and instead she decides to give up her feelings for the child’s. Mariam too goes through moments where sacrifice is necessary. For instance, when the drought hit and Rahseed looses his shoe store she realizes that in order for her family to survive she must ask Jalil, her father, for money. In order to contact her father she travels in the hot sun, calls the mayor, and says, “I know you have important things to tend to, but it is life and death”(310). Mariam swallows her pride and begins to realize her negative reaction towards her father w...
It can be examined from a few different standpoints, from the dramatic, psychological, and even mythical. Although this play has so many different views to explore, they all mainly focus on the protagonist of the play, Jessie, and her motivations for her decision to take her own life. Through further exploration, I will analyze one of the major scenes before Jesse takes her own life and would like to further explore the character of Mama.
The grandmother who is miserable and mean to everyone, throughout the play she played her part well. There was a time in the story where she took the candies and pretzel behind Jay 's back and him to pay for them even though he takes it. He was so upset, he wanted to leave Uncle Louie to be a gangster to help his father so he could be able to come back for them. Another humorous moment was when Aunt Bella, would constantly go to the movies, and she met an usher name Johnny there and within 10 days he asked her to marry him. She wanted to but scared her mom would say no, and saying yes to giving her five thousand dollars for Johnny to open a restaurant. This was hilarious, who in their right state of mind, meet a guy and say yes to marrying him after such short time meeting
Mama’s dreams were first deferred when she moved into the small apartment that the Youngers family stay in through out most of the play. She became too busy that she couldn’t accomplish her dream. She also could not for fill her dreams since she did not have enough money to do so. Her dreams were even more shattered with the death of her husband, but when she got the money from her husband’s death her dreams then became a reality again. Mama wants Travis to be happy and play in the garden but she cannot do this since they live in a dirty ghetto.
Mama younger was a progressive force that was both holding the family together and helping it to move forward. Throughout the play Mama Younger was a strong woman that was the head of her family since her husband died. Her priority was her family, everything she would do was
When Mariam eventually grows to love both Laila and Aziza, a sense of purpose and confidence comes into Mariam’s life that she incapable of having before. Throughout her childhood, Mariam’s toxic relationship with her mother, Nana, forces shame and guilt upon Mariam, causing
... mother all along. Unluckily, both are unable to savour the moment. Overall, the mother and son relationship change throughout the play.
...ly serve to keep her from seeing herself as she really is. The grandmother's manipulation is simply a dishonest approach to controlling her family. In the end these characteristics of the grandmother actually brought her to a place of physical death which is seen as a type of spiritual dying to one's self in order to embrace true righteousness by entering into a state of grace. Some insight can be gained from the Misfit's brief commentary on the life of the grandmother. "She would of been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life (395).
Maurya, the protagonist of the play, is the victim of a terrible fate brought by the sea. She is depicted as a typical mother, who lives entirely for the well-being of her family and at the beginning of the play, Maurya had already lost her husband, father-in- law, and was in a deep grieving for her fifth son, Michael, who had been lost for days in the sea. She is aware that her