Mother's Love

A detailed Summary of Mother's Love

Two mothers, each overcoming obstructions and privation, each with their own approach in loving their children, are both doing the best they know how. Lorraine Hansberry's: A Raisin in the Sun and Tennessee Williams': The Glass Menagerie are masterpieces of American literature. Both stories feature mothers single handedly leading their families through hardship and adversity. Williams' Amanda and Hansberry's Lena show us two different aspects of mothering adult children. By identifying the factors that encompass their lives: poverty, racism and single parenthood we can better understand the relationship each has with their families.

Lena and Amanda must face the difficult task of surviving with their children in poverty; this strains the connections they have with their children. Poverty is evident in the author's notes of both plays. Williams describes the Younger's living conditions by saying "their primary feature is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years - and they are tired." Hansberry also introduces these conditions: "...that flower warty growths in overcrowded urban centers of lower middle class popul

ation..." as he describes the Wingfield apartment. Lena Younger makes comments under her breath regarding the way her daughter in law, Ruth, raises her grandson, Travis. Lena's family is about to understand what a life without monetary difficulties is like as they will soon receive a life insurance check. Lena, however, does not recognize her current state of penury in the same way her children do, "Somebody would have thought my children all but starved to death the way they talk about money late." She says to her son, Walter, of their financial situation "...I ain't got nothing, don't own nothing, ain't never really wanted nothing that wasn't for you. There ain't nothing as precious to me..." Because of economic struggles, Lena's daughter, son, daughter in law and grandson live with her. In these small quarters we see Lena assess Ruth's parenting skills as she questions what Ruth has fed Travis for breakfast. Recognizing this Ruth responds, "I gave him hot oats - is that all right!" Lena persists in her meddling by saying, "Put a lot of nice butter on it? He likes lots of butter". We see Amanda's nervous tension after she confiscates Tom's books and screams "BUT I WON'T ALLOW SUCH FILTH IN MY HOUSE" and Tom counters "House, house! Who pays rent on it, who makes a slave of himself to -" Amanda then charges, "What right have you got to jeopardize your job? Jeopardize the security of us all? How do you think we'd manage if you were -" It is obvious that an impoverished life has made both mothers overprotective of their loved ones and thus appear overassertive and co

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Approximate Word count = 1061
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous