Money Hungry

Money is perhaps the most prominent symbol in Money Hungry. Money represents different things for different characters depending on their proximity to money, their ability to acquire it, and what they choose to spend it on. For Raspberry, money is a symbol of safety and freedom. Raspberry’s views on money can be best summarized in this quote: “If you got money, people can’t take stuff from you—not your house, or your ride, not your family” (21). Raspberry explains here that money insulates from hardship and harm. Both objects and people are protected and safe when one has money. Raspberry is forced to reckon with her relationship to money throughout the text and ultimately concludes that while money can certainly give one an advantage in life, it is ultimately fleeting: “I think how hard I worked to get my money, and how fast it was gone” (164). Raspberry does not cease to be interested in money at the end of the text, but she understands that no amount of money can prevent bad things from happening in life, such as the robbery that she and Momma experience.

For Momma, money is a symbol of upward mobility and a new life. She works multiple jobs to make enough money to improve her and Raspberry’s quality of life. Momma works multiple jobs, enrolls in college classes, and seeks out better housing for her and Raspberry. Despite Raspberry’s preoccupation with money, her response to this is that “all her working is only gonna get us a bigger place for me to be by myself in” (73). To Raspberry, Momma’s pursuit of money and upward mobility comes at the cost of her and Momma being able to spend time together.

As such, money becomes a wedge of contention between them that reaches its climax when Momma throws Raspberry’s money out the window. Momma, believing that Raspberry has stolen money from Ja’nae’s grandfather, sees the toll that money has taken on Raspberry. In her decision to throw out Raspberry’s money, Momma illustrates her conviction that money is not more important than her morals: “I would rather throw it all away, than for you to think it’s okay to steal” (113). Momma views money as necessary to acquire to better their situation, but its importance is subsumed by her desire for Raspberry to have values and morals that are untainted by the pursuit of money.

Raspberry’s friends have different relationships with money. Zora views money as a status symbol and access to material goods. Because her father is a doctor, she has easy access to money, even though her parents are divorced, leaving her “broke half the time” when with her mother (10). She takes part in Raspberry’s jobs not because she needs money to survive, but because her parents make her split the cost of a new pair of sneakers or jeans. For Ja’nae, money is a symbol of love and an opportunity to reconnect with her mother. She steals money from her grandfather to pay her estranged mother’s ticket from California. Ja’nae views money as the way to convince her mother to come back and convince her that Ja’nae is worthy of love. This view has painful consequences for Ja’nae. Almost as soon as her mother reappears in her life, she is gone again, saying that “there’s too much drama here” (166)—the drama being that Ja’nae’s mother gave up parental rights when she abandoned Ja’nae as a baby.