Bobbie Carlyle’s bronze sculpture titled Self Made Man depicts a man carving himself out of stone and, according to Carlyle herself, “carving his character, carving his future”. This sentiment of a man molding himself into who he wants to become is reminiscent of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun. The play follows an African-American family living in Chicago struggling to improve their lives as well as fulfill their dreams, especially regarding one of its main characters, Walter Lee Younger, who is striving to become a successful businessman to improve his life. He often expresses discontent over his status in the world. By attempting to build a successful business Walter is trying to carve himself a new identity and a new future, in which he is not inhibited by the color of his skin and where he is situated in the world, but, just
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The man in this sculpture is trying to become the man he is wishing to be, working hard and hammering away at the stone he is trapped in, but he is not free of it yet. He is progressing and forging himself in different stages, so he is continuously working on himself through the hammer and the chisel, deciding who he wants to become.
This notion of self-realization connects to Walter Lee Younger, who is metaphorically trapped in stone, too, mostly because of his standing in society as an African-American man. Walter is dissatisfied with the current state of his life, constantly frustrated at no one listening to him and his dreams (“Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to take a hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I’m choking to death, baby! And his woman say — Your eggs is getting cold!”, R: 33/34) and he
The man in this sculpture is trying to become the man he is wishing to be, working hard and hammering away at the stone he is trapped in, but he is not free of it yet. He is progressing and forging himself in different stages, so he is continuously working on himself through the hammer and the chisel, deciding who he wants to become.
This notion of self-realization connects to Walter Lee Younger, who is metaphorically trapped in stone, too, mostly because of his standing in society as an African-American man. Walter is dissatisfied with the current state of his life, constantly frustrated at no one listening to him and his dreams (“Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to take a hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I’m choking to death, baby! And his woman say — Your eggs is getting cold!”, R: 33/34) and he