Everyone in society has a role to play. It might be assigned by gender, class, socio-economics or race. It is evident that America, this big melting pot, has many such roles that they delegate to people on a daily basis. There is the role of men, women, children, workers, rich, poor, middle class, upper class, blacks and minorities and whites. In most situations, a woman is placed on the lowest rung on the socio-economic ladder. Her role has been defined for her as a girl and follows her through womanhood. In the case of the black woman, the role has always been one of invisibility. She has been invisible in most instances and when seen she is either the maid, the mammy, the indentured servant, the lover, or nurturer of all. She is however, the pillar of the black community. She is the strength and the glue that holds the family together. Black women, the most deprived people in the United States, as shown by their unpleasant working, occupation, salary and lack of available mates, have been tampered with by changers of reality. This misrepresentation successfully continues the persecution of the Black woman.”(1)
In the novels, Their Eyes are Watching God, by Zora Neal Hurston, Kindred by Octavia Butler and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the black woman’s role is most adequately portrayed as it relates to the American dream. In order to discuss this, one must first look at the meaning of the American Dream and the way it is seen by modern society. The American Dream was meant to be a vision of a place where life should be improved and more affluent for everyone, with opportunity for everyone with the desire to achieve.(2) This dream is not about the ability to own more material things, but a dream of communal stability in which each person is able to live and be accepted by others for what they are, regardless of the unplanned birth conditions or their socio-economic (P.214-215)(3) Janie, the main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God, has been portrayed as property, an embellishment that feeds a man’s ego and as a subservient wife who should know her place. Later in the story she is portrayed as a pariah to society because she reinvents herself and becomes an independent woman. Janie’s grandmother was the mother and grandmother so she had to work to make a home for Janie. “Black women, due to economic necessity, have always worked to support themselves and their families.” (4) She soon made sure that her granddaughter was well taken care of by arranging a marriage with a man who was more than twice her age. He treated Janie badly and she soon left to marry another. The only way she could partake of the American dream was by marrying Joe Starks, and becoming the mayor’s wife. He, however, does not allow her to have a voice because he has very rigid ideals about her place in the marriage and in their society. When Joe dies after refusing to see her while on his deathbed, Janie finds happiness in the arms of a younger man. Although she enjoys her life she soon relegates herself to the position of a migrant worker. She seems to have fallen from grace; from the mayor’s wife to a migrant worker in the Muck. She is forced to defend herself and kills him. Janie returns to her old community and is treated very badly by her so called friends. Here we see evidence of a black woman’s role in the American Dream, which was at times elusive. She no longer had the status that she once held in Eatonville. The dream had dissipated leaving her in a position of poverty.
In Kindred, by Octavia Butler, we again see the role of the Black woman clearly defined. Dana, the protagonist in the story, gets a chance to look at life in different eras. She is able to live in a time when the black woman had no hope of gaining any of the American dream. She experiences the whippings, the racial discomfiture, the need to take care of her abuser and master in order to maintain the family bloodlines. She still, however is unable to gain a piece of that “pie in the sky’’- the American Dream. This illusive object, slipped away each time she disappeared to another time. In essence it shows her that although the years had passed, she could still see remnants of the bloodiness of slavery. Her place in ancient society was that of a slave, a nursemaid, a lover, although she was raped, and a preserver of family. Each time she saved the slave owner, a young man, she showed her empathy for human beings even in the most difficult circumstances. This time shifting has some effects on her role in modern society as she, a writer like her spouse, ends up typing his paper although she hated the menial labor of typing. She does this to show support for her man, a white man, and puts her agenda on the back burner. Here she is playing the role of the supportive wife although it will not bring her any acclaim. Dana knows that her husband is more upwardly mobile because he has attained a piece of the “dream.” He has more money than she does and his career as a writer is taking off while hers isn’t. In this case, Dana is the supportive spouse waiting for her dream to be realized while her husband, a white man, has already achieved his dream. Black women are the most disenfranchised people in this story. Although they appear docile and obedient, their passive behavior id used as a buffer to protect the lives of loved ones. This is seen in the case of the cook, Sarah who was a complex and zealous woman. She is consumed with hatred toward those who have stolen the freedom of her and her family. She detests Weylin for selling her children and is very cognizant of his power as her boss. He, in turn uses Carrie, Sarah’s daughter, as a bargaining chip. He blackmails her by using the fact that as long as Carrie remains with Sarah, no harm will befall him or his family members, and she will not attempt to run away. Sarah pretends to be loyal in order to ensure that her only family member will not be taken from her. Her passive behavior is a front she keeps up to avoid losing anything else.” (5) In this book, the dream is non-existent while in the play “A Raisin in the Sun”, there is clear evidence of a shift in the reality of achieving a piece of the dream.
Given the fact that the setting is in a more modern era, it is clear that the quest to acquire the American dream is very present the realities Lena Younger and of her daughter Benita. Lena, the matriarch of the family will stop at nothing to make sure her family are able to leave their dilapidated apartment and move to a house in a white neighborhood. She does all she can so she can make this dream a reality. Lena is determined to have this house because it united the family. Her daughter Benita had a dream of becoming a doctor and her mother was determined to make this a reality. All these dreams are viable but it requires determination and hard work. There is the bitter sweet notion in this play that in order to attain the dream, some materialize while others fail. At the helm of the demise of some of the dreams is trickery, racial profiling and a lack of patience. Lena was able to gain her dream by careful planning, wise investment and strong will. She was not afraid of putting her faith in action. Her son, however was impatient but again the black woman, in her quest to save her family made sacrifices to make it happen. Although these novels deal with the disparity in the equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities, the black woman, although held in a place of subservience, is able to attain a little piece of the dream. Black women might not have achieved the American dream but they have been the glue that held families together, the main support of families, and the purveyor of kindness and self -sufficiency.
References
1. Robinson, Christine Renee, “Black Women: A Tradition of Self Reliant Strength, 1983 Hayworth Press, Inc.
2. Adams, James Truslow, The Epic of America, Transaction Publication, Library of Congress, 1931.
3. Adams, James Truslow, The Epic of America, Transaction Publication, Library of Congress, 1931.
4. 1. Robinson, Christine Renee, “Black Women: A Tradition of Self Reliant Strength, 1983 Hayworth Press, Inc.
5. http:// www.Spark Notes
