Lauren's Paper

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Another moment in the text that can be enhanced by a song is the scene between Roxy and Tom in the town’s haunted house. This is the instance where Roxy shares with Tom the switch that she devised many years ago. By doing this, she also reveals that Tom is actually black. This is a difficult confession for Tom to handle. Consequently, he yells at Roxy and decides that, “the whole thing is moonshine.” At this moment, Roxy is angered and because she has the upper hand, starts to boss Tom around. She uses the fact that she is now his mother and has leverage over him. Roxy demands, “chillen don’t speak to dey mammies like dat. You’ll call me ma or mammy, dat’ s what you’ll call me.” In addition to requiring him to call her mom and go by the name Chambers, she demands that he pay her half of his allowance and insures that he is going to pay off his gambling debt. The song that would describe this situation would be Mother Knows Best from Tangled. Just like Roxy, Rapunzel’s mother persuades her by saying, “Me, I'm just your mother, what do I know? I only bathed and changed and nursed you. Go ahead and leave me, I deserve it. Let me die alone here, be my guest. When it's too late, you'll see, just wait.” This is similar to how Roxy is able to demand respect from Tom by being his mother and threatening to share his secret. Roxy also does not yell at Tom for his gambling debts but instead focuses on paying them and entails that she too is paid for. These requirements can be described in the song by the lines, “Mother understands. Mother's here to help you. All I have is one request.” The song has a menacing tone because the mother of Rapunzel is taking advantage of Rapunzel and her hair. Even though Roxy does care about her son, she is using his situation that she established for him for her benefit. As a result of the comparisons between the song and the event in the book, the song Mother Knows Best would be appropriate for the movie soundtrack.

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