Mama Could Use Some Maxwell, Please

One thing that interested me about the Mama adaptations was their depiction of an immigrant, working-class mother to what I'm guessing would be a mixture of working class and middle class audiences--since not everyone could read, had a t.v., or access to the stage theater though most people seemed to have access to the movies, at least every now and then. I wonder what effects each medium had on its particular audience. The adaptation that seemed to have clear signs of an ideological underpinning was the television version, which of all the versions was the most different. In it we have a mother, like many other viewing mothers, with one major exception from most of them: she's a first generation immigrant. But she is extremely sympathetic, at least to other housewives and mothers, in her portrayal: a mother constantly working to keep the family functioning as a family while at the same time doubting whether or not her family really appreciates her sacrifices. The other adaptations certainly show the family's dependence on "mama" as well as the continual work she must get done but not a trace of her being under-appreciated. I wonder if this was an addition intended for the typical audience of the television medium, a reminder to the family to appreciate mama or to mama that her family appreciates her. And I also wonder how advertising tapped into this particular portrayal: buy mama a radio to keep her company or an electric iron/vacuum/etc. that cuts her work in half.

What ideological effects did the other adaptations have or intend to have? Were they an attempt to normalize or get people to identify with an immigrant family? A working class family? Or to provide an example that the immigrant family could assimilate to American life? Or that the children of a working class family could rise into the middle class? Or did the adaptations attempt to provide an ideal example of what the typical American family could be in the 1940s and 50s. There are, of course, many possible sociological inquiries with which we could approach the film. I just thought I would highlight a few.