We meet Eva not too long into the book and get to know her as a very independent person. Her cheating husband left her with practically nothing but 3 mouths to feed. She was the only parent figure in the peace family. She did as much as she could for her family, not much but also her neighbors would help. She had come to a point where she left her children for 18 months. We don’t know what’s she does in that time, but what we do now is that she came back a new woman, not just because she had lost one of her legs but because she was ready. Ready to be there and had returned with some money. Not too soon she was the picture of an independent strong-minded women. In the book we get a sense of how she was perceived by others. “The wagon was so low that children who spoke to her standing up were eye level with her, and adults, standing or sitting, had to look down on her. But they didn’t know it. They all had the impression that they were looking up at her, up into the open distances of her eyes, up into the soft black of her nostrils and up at the crest of her chin.” (31) When I read this, I get the image of her standing on her balcony of her house as she looks at the people, she takes care of. Not only her family but the number of people who lived in her house and feeling personally responsible for all of them. She sacrificed her own happiness and maybe health to ensure that the people she loves are taken care of. In her own unique way.
In the book A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, we meet Lena Young, but mostly known as Mama. She is the head of the household and cares for each person in that home. She has faced challenges like poverty, racism, and the death of her husband. In my opinion she is a bold character. Even with all the problems she has with her family, specifically her children, she still manages to control them in way that she always has the last word. Granted she is their mother, but it would be unthinkable to stand next to her talk out of turn. Beneatha and Mama don’t always see eye to especially when it comes to religion. In the play beneath and Mama get into a heated argument about gods role in their lives. Mama “Course you going to be a doctor honey, God willing.” Beneatha “God hasn’t got a thing to do with it.” Mama “Beneatha, that just wasn’t necessary” Beneatha “Well neither is God. I get sick of hearing about God. . . I mean it! I’m just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has he got to do with anything? Does he pay tuition?” (Hansberry, 50-51)In the book she is described as an old-fashioned woman but still supports her family’s decisions and wants the absolute best for them.
I think both of these women set the example of proud women. They’re proud of what they’ve overcome and achieved in life. But their daughters want more. They come from a different generation of course and don’t always see what their mothers have sacrificed for them. The privileges of their life that they didn’t have growing up. But can you blame them for wanting more? Isn’t that point of a growing family? To step up to the plate and bring your family name further. To achieve things to make your parents proud. I know I am. I’m a first-generation student who believes to succeed in life is to make my parents proud and do what they couldn’t. What would be the point of sacrificing so much? To do the bare minimum? No. But does that mean that should be the only thing to reach for in life? No. When you look at the relationship Eva and Hannah have and the relationship Mama and Beneatha have, you see some similarities. In the book Hannah asks her mother if she ever loved her children. Her response was “Aww, Mamma? Aww Mamma? You settin’ here with your healthy-ass self and ask me did I love you? Them big old eyes in your head would a been two holes full of maggots if I hadn’t. I didn’t mean that, Mamma. I know you fed us and all I was talking ‘bout something else. Like. Like playin’with us. Did you ever, you know, play with us?” (Morrison, 68) Eva and Hannah have a complicated relationship because they both have different point of views on what love is. Eva sees love as being a provider and Hannah sees it as doing more than that and being more a caring character for her children.
Sula takes you through the early 1900s and the struggles of mainly black women. In the 1900s Black women were taught to take care of the house and children so of course they were only taught housekeeping skills. But it was a cruel circle where women were constantly getting left, cheated on or abused by their husbands. By the time their husbands left or died, they were left to fend for themselves and their children. Colored women weren’t looked at as smart or beneficial to others, but they were resilient. They couldn’t stand to be looked at as nothing. They overcame the obstacles to become the woman they needed in their life. To be that role model in the way they knew how.
Discussion Questions
- Why do these two mothers love differently? Is it because of their experience?
- What kind of relationship do you have with your mother/mother figure that is similar or different?
Works cited
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Vintage Books, 1994.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. Columna, 1995.
