Why is the Movie Called Straw, Explained

Netflix’s ‘Straw’ stars Taraji P. Henson as a down-on-her-luck single mother, Janiyah, who experiences the worst day of her life when everything keeps going wrong around her. She works two jobs to provide for her daughter, Aria, who suffers seizures and needs meds and constant care. As they set out on just another seemingly normal day, Janiyah loses her daughter, her job, and her apartment all in a single day. As she tries to navigate this difficult day, which becomes even more impossible by the minute, we see her breaking down to the point that it justifies the title of her story. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Title Refers to Janiyah’s Breaking Point

Life had never been easy for Janiyah. She wanted to go to nursing school and work in healthcare, but instead, she is forced to work at a low-paying job in a supermarket, under an extremely rude and insensitive boss who doesn’t seem to have an ounce of sympathy for his employees. Still, she pushes through it because she knows she needs the money for her daughter’s meds, which is yet another way the system has failed her. The cost of keeping her daughter alive and healthy is so high that she cannot pay for anything else.

She is late on her rent and other bills, she does not have air conditioning in her house, she doesn’t have the time or the money to renew her driver’s license, and she doesn’t even have $40 for her daughter’s lunch at school. And all of this isn’t just a day’s problem. This happens over and over and over again, every single day. When Janiyah wakes up in the morning, it is never without the looming threat of losing something she hasn’t been able to pay for.

She is constantly in motion, working hard and pushing through as she tries to survive, barely being able to do so every day. The only reason she has the strength to do all this is her daughter, Aria, whom she wants to give a good life and education to despite everything. And then, Aria dies of a stroke, and that becomes Janiyah’s “final straw,” which is what the title refers to.

Straw Highlights the Importance of Kindness and Support

When Tyler Perry wrote the film, he wanted to address this continual hustling and grinding that traps people in a cycle that they can never break out of. He wanted to focus on the sheer pressure of survival and how difficult it can be for people to live from hand to mouth on a daily basis, which is a sad reality for a lot of people today. However, even with all these hardships, a sense of community and support system can help people pull through the worst of their days.

Janiyah, however, does not have this support system. She is a mild-mannered person who keeps to herself. She barely has one friend at work, and while she has a mother and a sister, they don’t, or are not able to, give her the support she needs. The more we look into Janiyah’s life, the more we see that she cannot seem to catch a break. Still, she never complains because she keeps herself focused on Aria. So, when Aria is gone, whatever fine thread was holding her together breaks. In the time of such immense grief, the world continues to be harsh to her, and there is no word of kindness or compassion from anyone.

Her landlady continues to hound her, her boss remains an insufferable oaf, and the whole system seems to be actively working against her to make her life even worse. With all this in mind, it is no surprise that all hell breaks loose on the day she loses her daughter. Her mind warps her reality to try to shield her from the loss, but as the day continues to worsen, she finally snaps, and that’s what “straw” refers to. Interestingly, at the end of the day, it is the kindness from two strangers (Nicole and Detective Raymond) that saves her, which makes one wonder how all the bad things could have been averted if the people had simply been more considerate, in general.