The Perfect Wedding...?
In chapter 16 of Mama by Terry McMillan, Angel is finally getting married but she asked her mother; Mildred; for a thousand dollars to pitch into the wedding. But it turns into a nasty argument once it was time for Mildred to put in forth the money she told Angel she can give. This causes a money vs social class conflict.
Since Angel's soon-to-be husband is white, it puts Mildred through a rant when her daughter is high upset her mother doesn't have the money. She states, "He ain't worth all this trouble and I don't know why you had to have such an expensive-ass wedding in the first place. He's rich and he's white so let his mama and daddy pay for the whole goddamn thang. I don't like him noway", (McMillan, 279). And then goes on to say that she will not attend the wedding.
Mildred was so upset that she felt that Angel's husband social background and race shouldn't have to extend their hand to an unfortunate family. However, it wasn't like that in Angel's eyes she just wanted her mother to help out since it is tradition for the bride's parents to pay for the wedding. If Mildred would of just told the truth from the beginning do you think she would of turned it around and blame it on Ethan? Or do you think she would of still blamed him since he is a "rich, upcoming-dentist, white boy"?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you bring up how Mildred handles the situation of being asked to contribute to her daughter’s wedding. This simple request, tradition as you have stated, shows much about Mildred and how she handles situations in her life. You ask a question at the end about the possibility of what would have happened if Mildred handled the situation differently. I think that if Mildred had faced the challenge of saving the money as she promised than she would not have made the comments she did about race and social background. I feel like she was bringing these issues up so she would not have to face the fact that she made a promise and did not keep it. Mildred was not honest until she was challenged by Angel, in my opinion, because she was scared of facing her failure.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the pictures you started your post with. They were unexpected and grabbed my attention making me want to read further on to see what they were about. I also appreciate you using the text to support your argument rather than just mentioning character and events from the story. I have trouble though understanding what a money vs. social class conflict is. I don’t know if you mean an upper vs. lower class conflict or some other type of conflict relating money to class. I think I would have had an easier time of understanding if your conclusion was structured differently. The grammatical issues made it hard to understand exactly what conclusion you were drawing.
i also like how you brought mildreds reaction when ask to help pay for the wedding. the reaction wasnt a big supurise to me because even after all this time mildred is just doing what she knows best. and that is being mean and cheap because shes not getting the better deal. she wants to spend her money on her and since shes marrying a white man that she should spend his money. Mildred is assuming hes rich and now that her daughter is getting married it represents Mildred getting old.
ReplyDeleteyour pictures in the beginning were so cool how did you post them ? it really added to the reading because even before i started reading you gave me an idea of what i was about to read. i enjoyed reading your blog it flowed nice and felt that you used strong details from the book. other than the grammatical issues and the comments said above by juicy i really thought it was good.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWe know how important the "children" are to Mildred and her existence. Providing for her kids every need despite not having it is about as natural as breathing to her especially being that she see how fast their growing up, so when Angel came to Mildred about her wedding she didn't hesitate to say yes. I feel like Mildred is so use to her quick wits getting her out of situations for example when she threw those gambling parties where she sold plates to bring in extra cash that she thought this would be just another one of those moments. She refused to tell her because she didn't want to disappoint her and her ego wouldn't allow her to believe that she had done everything in her power and still came up with nothing so she lashed out at Angel instead. She would rather have Angel hurt and upset with her than disappointed with her so I don't think she would have placed everything on Ethan if she did have the means to help her out.
ReplyDeleteAs a reader I like how you asked for our opinion at the end to engage us in your post. Also by providing a quote for Mildred if I didn't read the book as well I would be able to get a sense of what kind of person she is from that statement. I found it interesting how you made the this climatic scene relate back to social class. Despite the grammatical errors I was enjoyed reading your point of view