Money Hungry

Raspberry is consumed by her desire to accrue money in the pursuit of financial security. She is willing to pursue money at any cost—even to the detriment of her relationships. It is only through losing much of the cash stores she has collected that Raspberry realizes what her greed has cost her and that money is not more important than her relationships with those she loves.

Raspberry’s preoccupation with money is understandable given her past. Raspberry establishes early on that her father’s struggle with addiction led her and Momma to live on the streets. Now, after that difficult period, Raspberry holds firm to the belief that “if you got money, people can’t take stuff from you—not your house, or your ride, not your family. They can’t do nothing much to you, if you got a bankroll backing you up” (21). This quote informs Raspberry’s thinking that money is a way to insulate yourself and those you love from harm, challenge, or strife. Raspberry desires money, but what she’s pursuing is a more stable life, one in which she and Momma don’t have to worry so much about money or ever live on the streets again.

Her lingering anxiety, informed by a past marked by financial insecurity, quickly turns to greed, which threatens her relationships with those around her by sowing distrust and resentment. This progression is illustrated by the arc of her relationship with Ja’nae. Raspberry, resistant to lending out money though she has the means, puts Ja’nae on a payment plan to get back the money she lent her. Ja’nae hides the fact that she has been sending the money to her estranged mother in California. When Raspberry confronts her and accuses her of withholding “what’s mine,” Ja’nae finally breaks: “You cheap greedy thing…I told you I didn’t have the money. Why couldn’t you just leave me be? Why couldn’t you just trust me?” (125). In this quote one realizes just how much Raspberry’s hunger for money has affected her, to the point that she neglects to trust one of her best friends.

It is only through losing it that Raspberry revises her previously held views about money. At their new temporary home, Raspberry listens to Momma talk about her vision for their future. Raspberry thinks to herself “how hard I worked to get my money, and how fast it was gone. ‘At least I got Momma… No matter what, I still got her’” (164). Raspberry’s money worries have not completely resolved at the end of the narrative, but she has certainly learned that her relationships hold more value.

At the opening of Money Hungry, Raspberry Hill and her mother are no longer living on the streets. They live in an apartment in the projects and aspire to move into a house in a better neighborhood. Though money continues to be a source of anxiety for both Raspberry and Momma, they are in a better financial situation than they have been in the past. Still, Raspberry’s actions throughout the text are influenced by the lasting effects of poverty and financial insecurity, which can be felt long after a period of hardship has ended. Raspberry’s obsession with money stems directly from hers and Momma’s period of homelessness.

The way Raspberry talks about money indicates that her desire for money goes beyond a simple desire for cash. Money is a representation of Raspberry’s desire for a more stable life and her earlier lack of access to it. Beyond money’s symbolic implications, Raspberry is obsessed with the object of money itself. Raspberry speaks about money almost lovingly and uses it as a source of comfort: “Some nights, when I can’t sleep, I grab me a fistful of and count it till I drop off snoring. Don’t take me too long to nod off then” (1). As some would rely on a stuffed animal or another object of comfort to soothe themselves, Raspberry needs a physical pile of cash in front of her to feel secure. In another example, when Momma hands Raspberry her lunch money, Raspberry tries to resist doing what “I always do when dollars grease my palm—smell the money like it’s chocolate-chip cookies straight out the oven” (8). The comparison of money to cookies illustrates just how hungry Raspberry is for money—a hunger that lingers from a time when she didn’t have any.

Raspberry’s lingering financial insecurity causes her to act in contradiction to what she knows to be right. When she takes the money from Ja’nae after cleaning Ms. Neeta’s house, she tries to rationalize her decision to herself because of what she’s been through: “When you’re living on the streets, you do what you gotta do. Like I gotta take the money. It’s mine. And I can’t walk home and leave what’s mine behind. If I did, where would I be? On the streets again, sure ’nuff” (66). Raspberry’s mindset here indicates that she is still in survival mode, even though she is no longer living on the street. She feels that she must do whatever it takes, even if it involves hurting someone she cares about, because she feels that she remains one decision away from being on the streets again. Though Raspberry decides to return the money to Ja’nae, her first actions and thought process were influenced by her lingering fear.

Raspberry’s recurring dream is another sign of her haunting past. In the dream, she describes pushing a grocery cart full of money through the streets. Despite this abundance of cash, familiar people in Raspberry’s life tell her that her money’s no good. Dr. Mitchell, specifically, tells her that her money is “just not enough. It won’t ever be enough” (71). The dream’s setting and subject alone are evidence that Raspberry continues to process her traumatic experiences. The centrality of money in the dream also shows that financial insecurity’s effects linger as a source of stress in both her conscious and her subconscious mind. The fact that she has money in the dream but can’t use it for anything also suggests that the true source of her anxiety is not money itself but the lack of control and agency she feels as a result of not having money.

At the end of the text, Raspberry and Momma have endured many traumatic events relating to poverty and financial insecurity. This leaves Raspberry with lingering anxieties that affect her relationships and decision making. Raspberry’s anxiety has not entirely resolved by the end of the text, but there is hope in their move to Pecan Landings that she and Momma will weather any continued hardships together.