Rich in Love analytical essay

Literary Themes: Family in Literature
Nicholas Payette
Word count: 600

Short Analytical Writing Assignment 4

Compare the role of the mother (matriarch) in Rich in Love and in Soul Food, focusing on how the mother unites and divides the family—think about how Lucille noted that a family without a mother is vulnerable.
While both subject have a lot common and share multiple themes, the matriarch’s at hand do differ in the ways they influenced those surrounding them. Big mama was the rock of the family and kept everyone in tact, while Helen was confused Mother lacking love in her life, a life that we believe she was not contempt with. What I find more interesting about these two topics is how differently they go about accepting change; change incredibly threatens both the families but at the end both topics do correlate quite a bit. After the sudden events in Lucille family she quickly learns that life is not always fair and perfect, as a matter of fact it can be fake and deceiving. She quickly realizes that she must now take over the assumed position of being the mother at home, one she is not ready for. Where as at first she was a very discouraged and angry from her mothers disappearance, we see progressive change that influence her and those surrounding her in a positive way. Lucille was very attached to her belonging and her family, but at the end she has found interest in much more important things, she learns to fall in love with other things her mother had never shown her. In her complicated relationship with Billy he points out that she often starts her sentences with “I love”. She learned to accept the change that was brought to her life and used it to gain more important life lessons. Lucille’s new found love for herself has reflected on the others, and we can see that when her family increases at the end with Billy first, then Vera and Phoebe of course. Helen was not a rock for that family but if anything an unwanted pressure, her lack of parenting showed in the uncertainty of the Lucille we knew at the beginning of the book. Lucille is now ready for life. Big mama was very different in the way she played the matriarch role. The name Big Mama is in my opinion not due to the fact she was large, but the fact that she was a hard working and an inspiring women to this family, she was the Queen they looked after. Big Mama was an inspiration to Ahmad and made him promise to keep the family together. I specifically remember the scene where big mama does the reference about the fingers and fist. “ one finger wont do much, but put of all of them together and that fist will be strong enough to hit with, this family has to be that fist”. She trusts Ahmad and teaches him her wisdom that was uniting the family and keeping it a strong unit. Where the events and changes after her death shook the family quit a bit, it never the less did not break it apart in any significant way excluding Terri’s marriage. This is due to the fact that she was the rock that kept it as one, through Ahmad she was able to keep it together.
In both stories we see change having a very hard time being accepted, but with time it mostly settles down. Helen I believe was a burden to the family and was only part of it when emergency events were occuring, Big Mama on the other hand was a Legacy that stayed on through certain others. The protagonist of both subject (Ahmad and Lucille) both seem to have learned quite a bit through out the stories and have positively influenced those surrounding them in tough times.