The Statue In Ann Petry's Mother Africa
The statue in Ann Petry’s “Mother Africa” has multiple facets in regards to the group’s perceptions of the statue. I will be covering how the symbolic meanings the different groups divided by gender and age projected onto the bronze statue of the woman, seeing only the surface of the statues.
The statue has singular purpose function for the men in Mother Africa, to be a sexual object for their admiration and lust. The statue is not seen to the majority of the men as the white woman that Mannie discovers it to be at the end, no rather the men chose to see the statue as a sexual object, the woman baring all for them. The statue is not merely groped and used as a sex symbol, evidenced by a quote from page 141 “During the night someone, drunk …show more content…
Even then, their points are self-focused and single minded toward their benefits while they give no benefit of the doubt to Man. You can find examples of this directly in the text, “That dirty old Bottles oughta be ashamed of himself. That thing’s a disgrace to the neighborhood” on page 137, ““Lookit Old Junk standin’ there lookin’ her over. He’s probably drunk.” Another voice said, “That’s it. He drunk and crazy. Drunk and crazy.”” On the same page. This is a clear indicator of the harsh opinions the neighborhood women deem of him as soon as they see a statue of a nude woman in his yard without asking him where, why or any of the usual questions that would explain the statue and none of these questions are asked, opinions flying immediately and nothing being calmly explained. For the children this is somewhat acceptable because they are children and are forming their opinions unlike the adults. This is line with the main theme of Mother Africa as Ann Petry’s criticism of people not looking past the surface of the symbolic object. A basic analysis reveals the symbolic nature of the statue as representative of female sexuality, yet a deeper analysis will reveal the red herring nature of the statue. The statue is meant to be a distractive symbol, intended to drive the point that the surface is not the deepest level of a
The statue has singular purpose function for the men in Mother Africa, to be a sexual object for their admiration and lust. The statue is not seen to the majority of the men as the white woman that Mannie discovers it to be at the end, no rather the men chose to see the statue as a sexual object, the woman baring all for them. The statue is not merely groped and used as a sex symbol, evidenced by a quote from page 141 “During the night someone, drunk …show more content…
Even then, their points are self-focused and single minded toward their benefits while they give no benefit of the doubt to Man. You can find examples of this directly in the text, “That dirty old Bottles oughta be ashamed of himself. That thing’s a disgrace to the neighborhood” on page 137, ““Lookit Old Junk standin’ there lookin’ her over. He’s probably drunk.” Another voice said, “That’s it. He drunk and crazy. Drunk and crazy.”” On the same page. This is a clear indicator of the harsh opinions the neighborhood women deem of him as soon as they see a statue of a nude woman in his yard without asking him where, why or any of the usual questions that would explain the statue and none of these questions are asked, opinions flying immediately and nothing being calmly explained. For the children this is somewhat acceptable because they are children and are forming their opinions unlike the adults. This is line with the main theme of Mother Africa as Ann Petry’s criticism of people not looking past the surface of the symbolic object. A basic analysis reveals the symbolic nature of the statue as representative of female sexuality, yet a deeper analysis will reveal the red herring nature of the statue. The statue is meant to be a distractive symbol, intended to drive the point that the surface is not the deepest level of a