I have chosen to look at the life of Lena Younger. She is "mama" to her family. Lena seems to measure success by three things, her faith, her family and her ethics. She is a woman content with life for herself. She nurtures a plant that the rest of the family scoffs at, but to her it is a measure of her success that she is able to keep a green plant alive in her environment.
Lena is very much an old school traditionalist. She has no problem with a woman working to help support the family, but believes a woman's desire to help her husband, to be married and have children, should be the aspiration all women should live up to and succeed at. At the same time though she is very encouraging of her daughter Beneatha wanting to be a doctor. She is very much a picture of the older generation of her time. Beneatha has presented some radical new ideas to Mama's face, and Mama has very much forcefully rejected them. Likewise, Ruth, her daughter-in-law, presents the possiblity of an abortion, and Mama very much rejects this possibility as well. She stands guard over the traditions and morality of her family.
As I read through the two main stories for this weeks reading, I couldn't help but note the dissimilarities in the stories. There is a strong woman's influence in "A Raisin in the Sun," but in "A Doll's House," not so much. Both families struggled with hardships, but the kind of hardships were quite a bit different. Lena and Nora are nothing alike. Nora stands as a reminded that a focus on money and marrying for it causes horrible grief. Nora shows that she believes that immorality can be passed on to her children, but she has no problem with being dishonest in the face of a husband that is very dominant. She does many things that cause her ultimate downfall. Lena shows us that morality and ethics are a necessary baseline for life and that they are a foundation a person won't stumble on if they will but stick to their guns. In "A Raisin in the Sun," we also see people grappling with prejudice. This story was written when the world was still very segregated.
In both stories, there is one common thread that I can think of. Appearances can be deceiving. Though the circumstances of Lena and her family seem dire, in fact they are rich in some basic things. It takes a while to see it, but, family is important to all of them. They know they need each other. Their home is also poor, but, their decision to break the mold society is trying to put them in by moving to a new house in a white community shows an indomitable spirit in all of them. They refuse to allow anyone to put them down. Nora in, "A Doll's house," shows herself in a bad light in a lot of ways, but she is not as she seems. She is trying to make right a wrong she sees that she did in borrowing that money. She ends up growing up in this book and shows that, though she is first perceived as a child, in fact she is a very intelligent woman who refuses to allow anyone to continue treating her like a child in a doll's house that has to be taken care of.
If the stories had continued, I think we would see the Younger's breaking down barriers in their new neighborhood and fighting for what is right, which is equality between all people. It would have been hard, but worth it because they knew they weren't just fighting for themselves, but future generations. With Nora, I think we would see her taking steps to live a life not directed by her husband, but in fact stretching out to become an independent woman able to take care of herself. I think we would see Torvald bitter and alone.
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