The Grass is Always Greener
Claire Richey and Lily Emlong
While it seems trivial, grass plays a much larger role in Lemonade than it may look like at first glance. When looking into it deeper, it provides a lot of symbolism that gives Lemonade a much deeper meaning. It provides reflections on slave culture, and how it is connected to the United State’s modern day obsession with clean-cut grass.
Grass is a very common recurrence in the Lemonade film. The first notable scene is at the very beginning. Beyonce is standing in tall grass, dressed in a simple black hoodie with no makeup. The grass appears to be providing her shelter and a sense of safety. This could also be interpreted as she is a predator waiting in the grass to pounce on her prey. In this situation, her prey would be Jay-Z, who cheated her. As she pounces from the grass, she finds a new-found confidence, which can be seen in the next section of the film, Denial, while she is singing Hold Up.
Grass also plays a huge role while Beyonce is laying on the field of the Superdome. She is alone on the field, completely surrounded by an entire field of grass. This grass helps represent how black culture is heavily tied to sports. Football is a predominantly black sport due to the fact that“overall lower socioeconomic statuses limit them to competing in certain sports that require less financial investments in regards to equipment and access to facilities” (Klimowicz, 2018). Due to this, football has become very influential within the black community. Beyonce laying on the field of the Superdome is a reflection of the positive impact that football has on the black community. The Superdome is also significant because this is where Beyonce gave her iconic Super Bowl performance.
Another major scene in the film where grass plays a major role is the scene where Beyonce is leading a line of women dressed in white across the beach, and walk through a marsh, full of beach grass. One possible connection is that it has ties to the American deep south and the roots of slavery in America. When the enslaved people were forced to cross the ocean, they landed on the beaches covered in the beach grass. For many people who were forced to come to America, this was the first thing they saw as they got off the ships. Tall grass also continued off of the beach, all the way to the plantations the slaves were forced to work on.
The tall grass from the days of slavery is much different than America’s current obsession with a clean-cut vibrant green lawn. Almost every home in America, specifically in suburban areas, has a lawn. This has become a societal norm in America, despite all of the negative environmental impacts. “Their maintenance produces more greenhouse gasses than they absorb, and they are biodiversity deserts that have contributed to vanishing insect populations” (Ponsford, 2020). It also uses up a large amount of water that not everyone has access to.
The need for a clean law has developed over time, to the point where it is considered unnatural to not have it. This change can be seen in Lemonade in the redemption section. The plantation moved away from being covered by tall grass and spanish moss, and instead moved into organized gardens where the women take produce out of, and walk barefoot across the grass. This shows that as time has gone on, the role of grass in society has evolved.
In Lemonade, the grass at the beginning of the film creates an uneasy feeling. There is an ample amount of land around the ruins in the first shot of the film. This worked into the uneasy feeling since there is so much space that you cannot see what is around her because of the grass. As she stands in the grass it almost feels like she is hiding from something, whether it be she is prey like or predator like.
If she is more prey-like, she is hiding from the things that Jay-Z has done to her. During the scene, the lyrics are “Prayin’ you catch me listening” which makes it seem like she is hiding, but hoping that he finds her. The grass is like a form of protection from what she had been through.
If she is not being seen as the prey, but as the predator instead, the grass could be hiding her from Jay-Z so that she could surprise attack him. The grass would be a way to protect herself from being seen, this could represent her not being seen as weak or jealous. A little bit later in the film, Denial — “Hold Up”, she asks if it is better being seen as “jealous or crazy”, the grass could be protecting her from people seeing her upset or jealous. This way she would not have to be seen as either jealous or crazy when stalking him for cheating.
At the end of the film, in Redemption, she is in the same field and ruins as the beginning, but this time she is out in the open. She is not seen hiding within the grass, she is standing tall and making sure she is being seen. Showing that she no longer needs that protection she needed at the beginning of the film. She has grown and moved on from the pain of the past. This also relates to Lonely in America. The growth of grass can represent new life since grass often grows in the spring. Beyonce is reborn into her new relationship with Jay-Z, just as the grass is reborn in the Spring. Grass does not turn green overnight. It takes time for grass to fully recover from the harsh winters. Looking “Up close I could see new grass, slender and golden green” (Lonely in America). The recovery of Jay-Z and Beyonce’s relationship takes a while. It is not something that happened over night, but by looking close at their values, they were able to recover.
Photo Credit: Lemonade visual guides. Dissect. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2023, from https://dissectpodcast.com/lemonade-visual-guides/
