Sparknotes Mama Self Discovery
A Remedy for Self-Discovery
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I have fallen and gotten back up again” respectively said by Nelson Mandela illustrates the young protagonist Mildred Peacock of Point Haven, Michigan. A mother of five, Mildred, undergoes multiple struggles throughout her life reflecting on and from children. With all but one of her children being born to a crooked, cheating, alcoholic father, Mildred was making ends meet with little to no money, few jobs and a rundown car for her family. In the novel Mama by Terry McMillan, a young African American woman faces personal, physical, and proposed upon hardships on the road to self-discovery.
After enough pain and suffering caused by one man, Mildred made …show more content…
Y’all ain’t never gon’ have to worry about eating, that’s for damn sure” (McMillan, Chapter 3). Even though this type of third person dialogue slang does not continue throughout the entire novel, the emphasis McMillan places on the voice of Mildred Peacock illustrates the lack of education she has obtained in her childhood onto me as a reader. Education easily defined the setting McMillan placed her characters in as the availability of education to African Americans was becoming more readily available. Years leading up to the 1960’s had been an uphill battle with racial segregation and integration with black and white school districts. Before Mildred’s youngest child would dedicate themselves to years of education, the destruction of black only school districts would be considered unconstitutional decided upon in the popular case of Brown v. Board of Education. Mildred would soon discover that after living through her oldest daughter Freda’s education as she attended college for free, the thought of returning to school even as a spur of the moment decision would not “sound bad at all” (McMillan, Chapter 11). Instead of spending the rest of her years cleaning for the whites or in the factories, Ms. Peacock found herself personally within her desire of self education and
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I have fallen and gotten back up again” respectively said by Nelson Mandela illustrates the young protagonist Mildred Peacock of Point Haven, Michigan. A mother of five, Mildred, undergoes multiple struggles throughout her life reflecting on and from children. With all but one of her children being born to a crooked, cheating, alcoholic father, Mildred was making ends meet with little to no money, few jobs and a rundown car for her family. In the novel Mama by Terry McMillan, a young African American woman faces personal, physical, and proposed upon hardships on the road to self-discovery.
After enough pain and suffering caused by one man, Mildred made …show more content…
Y’all ain’t never gon’ have to worry about eating, that’s for damn sure” (McMillan, Chapter 3). Even though this type of third person dialogue slang does not continue throughout the entire novel, the emphasis McMillan places on the voice of Mildred Peacock illustrates the lack of education she has obtained in her childhood onto me as a reader. Education easily defined the setting McMillan placed her characters in as the availability of education to African Americans was becoming more readily available. Years leading up to the 1960’s had been an uphill battle with racial segregation and integration with black and white school districts. Before Mildred’s youngest child would dedicate themselves to years of education, the destruction of black only school districts would be considered unconstitutional decided upon in the popular case of Brown v. Board of Education. Mildred would soon discover that after living through her oldest daughter Freda’s education as she attended college for free, the thought of returning to school even as a spur of the moment decision would not “sound bad at all” (McMillan, Chapter 11). Instead of spending the rest of her years cleaning for the whites or in the factories, Ms. Peacock found herself personally within her desire of self education and