Synthesis Essay Are all mothers fit for motherhood? The concept of motherhood is scrutinized in the stories “The Rocking Horse Winner” and “Tears Idle Tears”. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H Lawrence the mother, Hester, unpremeditatedly provokes her son into providing for her through gambling. In the story “Tears Idle Tears” by Elizabeth Bowen, Mrs. Dickinson disregards her son’s emotions and puts more emphasis in her appearance than her son’s wellbeing. Hester and Mrs. Dickinson both were inadequate mothers. Both the mothers were materialistic, pretended to love their offspring, and their dominance hindered their children’s progress in life. In both stories the mothers possessed materialistic views on life. In the story “Tears Idle Tears” Mrs. Dickinson indulged in materialism when she left Frederick to cry and started thinking about the “…lunch she had had with Major and Mrs. Williams…” and her “…fox fur[s]… (112).” Her thinking about her lunches and outfits at such a critical time shows materialism because she valued …show more content…
In both stories it is explicitly told that the mothers in fact do not love their children and it is just a façade. Hester felt as if her children “…had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them” but according to individuals she knew “…[s]he adores her children (334-335).” Hester was not fit to be a mother because her children knew she did not love them and cared for him as a mother should and she showed herself to be phony by accepting everyone’s false beliefs on her parenting. Mrs. Dickinson is “…really ashamed of…” Frederick and since love is about acceptance and she has not accepted her child her love for him is questionable (111). Her being a mother is not admirable because her child id unable to be himself around her and she does not love him and accept him for who he
In both these works, the mothers play the most important role in the development of the plot. They represent the pillars of strength and they are the ones that hold the family together and the hope alive. In Lorraine Hansberry's work, Mama is a widow, mother of two children and the head of the household: "There are some ideas we ain't going to have in this house. Not long as I am at the head of this family." (Hansberry 51) Mama is aware of the high position she is awarded in the family, since her husband is dead and she is left in care of the family. Qualities like independence and strength surround her and give her and air of authority. She takes charge when others hesitate and she gives courage to the insecure. "You just got strong willed children and it takes a strong woman like you to keep'em in hand, (Hansberry 52) her daughter-in-law tells her at one point. This symbolizes the love and respect she carries for her, but also the power that Mama radiates over the whole family.
The mother is described as a caring, hardworking individual to her offspring. “A baby to one shoulder, a dish towel to the other” (8) this mother displays the true perception of motherhood. Willingly, this mother ensures that her children are well taken care of before her own well –being. Though she experience challenging situations, she outcast
There is no doubt in the fact that motherhood has changed throughout history in the way that it is practiced and perceived. Although hard to classify motherhood as an "easy" task in any time period, mothers of the Victorian period were among those who have had it the hardest. For example, Natalie McKnight, author of Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels, states: "When I first began studying the lives of Victorian women, I sympathized with the many women who suffered through the agonies of labor only to die shortly after the baby was born. As I continued my research, I began to feel more sympathy with those who survived" (McKnight 1).
A fiction story’s setting is critical to building the environment of a story around its characters, theme, and credibility. The setting needs to capture the interest of the audience and draw them into the story. The author can choose to have a great amount of detail or little detailing in the setting, depending on what kind of visual cues they want the audience to have in setting up the story. The characters and their behavior can be impacted by a setting, as it was seen in both “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence or in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. These two stories have a contrast in tone, setting, theme, and elements. One writer portrays more background imagery to paint a picture for the audience, while the other writer leaves
In novels, Incidents in the Life of a Slave girl, by Harriet A. Jacobs and The Awakening by Kate Chopin motherhood is portrayed in many different ways. The two stories differ in my way but both encounter similarities of motherhood in various ways. Both women were both essentially slaves in their own lives, both literally and theoretical. Both women portrayed motherhood by what I think it making a life for their children better, either before or after themselves.
Self - preservation: is to protect oneself from harm or danger. When an individual is faced with a dangerous situation it is a human instinct to protect oneself by doing everything they possibly can. However, when an individual chooses to abandon personal safety while prioritising external demands, it can cause dreadful consequences and ultimately, misery. In the short story, “ The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, it was shown how the protagonist Paul, a sweet and innocent child, was raised by a heartless mother in an ungrateful household. Paul recognizes his family’s financial problems and that his mother does not love him, resulting in his obsession with gambling to acquire money for his mother. Furthermore, Paul failed to acknowledge the balance
The Rocking Horse Winner - Money for Love In this short story, "The Rocking Horse Winner," there is a little boy. competing for his mother's love, and his mother bringing her son to his. death with her confusing vocabulary. Paul's mother confuses him with her.
When all the women in my life are mothers, what else can I aspire to be? Aren’t motherhood and womanhood so intricately interwoven so as to run into one another, to become one another? What kind of woman are you if you can’t add to the discussions in the doctor office waiting rooms about nursing this child or that through this malady or that? What kind of woman are you if you can’t re-tell the story of labor and delivery, recounting the hours, the pain, the excess or lack of your child’s hairiness over a church picnic while eating cold fried chicken and coleslaw? What kind of woman are you if you can’t feel the contradiction between the satisfaction of a job well done and the sorrow at a loss for being necessary when your child moves away from home? What else could I be but a mother? So, I am a mother, and yet am also not one, because I can tell these stories about my child with only partial knowledge. I am a non-biological mother of a child with two mothers, making my position ambiguous when I share my parenting stories publicly; though, at home, when Aedin calls out “Momma,” I’m all too happy to be the one she’s calling.
Eva’s lack of value for motherhood shaped the lives of her family as well as her own. Because of her negative feelings toward motherhood, many of the people surrounding her have similar values. Eva reflects her community’s negative perception of motherhood by being straightforward about it and passing it down through her family
Actress Jessica Lange once said, “The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your universe. You relinquish that position to your children. ” Lange’s statement implies motherhood comprises of selflessness, that women have a natural inclination to forswear their aspirations to assist their children to pursue their own. Nonetheless, other prevalent notions about motherhood share this same idiosyncrasy. Motherhood places the child’s needs above everyone else’s. Mothers who devote themselves to their children develop a large portion of their identities through their roles as mothers, sometimes to the point where they will do nothing else but raise their children. This is especially
Mothers, in most cases, are seen as the essential "caregivers" in many societies/ cultures. A novel or textbook, screenplay or script, Hallmark card or holiday, could celebrate "motherhood," and what it entails, at one point in time. The bond of mother and child is shown to be "unbreakable" and we hear stories of mother's lifting cars to save pinned children, essentially sacrificing their lives in order for their children's survival. Growing up, we might hear that being a mother is an "under-appreciated job; and "all the work mothers do whether paid or unpaid - has social and economic values"(1). Mothers can essentially be the shapers of the future society: able to raise children, and possibly even hold down a job, while still being able to cook and clean. Author Ellen Bravo stated, "Only Clark Kent had to be Superman, but every mother has to be Superwoman" (2).
"[M]otherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn 't care whether there was a word for it or not," Addie Bundren reflects from beyond the grave in As I Lay Dying (171). Though she can hardly be considered the paragon of motherhood, Addie 's words have a degree of truth to them which can be interpreted in more than one way. Perhaps mothers don 't need a word for motherhood because their experience is one that transcends language. Or perhaps it is only men and childless women who care about defining motherhood, because those who are mothers have realized "that living [is] terrible and that this [is] the answer to it," and thus have no desire to concern themselves with the definition of a meaningless term (As I Lay Dying 171). The latter appears to be the case for Addie, whose favoritism and passive aggressiveness lead to the horrible neglect of almost every one of her five children, but specifically of her only daughter, Dewey Dell. In contrast, Ellen Sutpen 's understanding of the terribleness of living and her own dysfunctional relationships lead her to seek happiness in an illusory world of wealth and status, to the neglect of her only daughter Judith. Both
Whenever someone mentions the word “mother”, one always tend to think of a very kind and caring figure who always whishes the best for her children. In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Huges, a mother is telling her son about the obstacles she had to overcome in order to get to the position she is in right now. There comes many moments in our life when we just want to give up and let fate handle everything. We face many difficulties that may not seem we can overcome but we should never give up right away. The mother in the poem is trying to convince her son to keep pushing and at the same time she is trying to set an example though her own past experience.
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. “Social constructions of mothering: A thematic Overview’’. Mothering. Eds. Evelyn Nakano Glenn, G. Chang and Linda R. Forcey. New-York, Routledge, 1994. Print.
Both middle and upper class mothers have certainly heard the message throughout their lives that their responsibility is in the caring for and nurturing of their children. This certainly leads to a multitude of tasks above and beyond clothing and feeding, which often result in a loss of freedom for the mother and a sense of enslavement. Breaking out of this pattern which has been expected of women and mothers in particular has been a goal for women for many decades. Being raised in a harsh environment has resulted in Edna naturally having an outlook on life that is quite different from the standard upper middle class belief of the mother being all sacrificing for her children. The emotional ties between mother and child seem to be on the back burner while more immediate needs are tended to. Edna's standards of what it means to be a good mother are entirely different from those of someone from a different class. She denies the upper-class role and defines motherhood in the only way she is capable of doing so, and is not damned by those around her for the way she raises her children.