Summary Of My Mother Never Worked By Smith-Yackel And The Storm

The two separate works My Mother Never Worked by Smith-Yackel and The

Storm by Chopin hold similarities in their themes such as motherhood, womanhood,

and being housewives. However the details, with in the stories themselves, hold

many differences. A Mid-western American woman works are and makes multiple

sacrifices to hold her family together during times of hardships in My Mother Never

Worked. A Créole American woman takes a chance against her family to relive the

passions of her younger days during The Storm. Though both women in My Mother

Never Worked and The Storm are mothers and housewives, their morality drives

them down different paths.

With in both stories the women were definite motherly figures in their

families.

By her first worrying for them and then after

showing relief when the husband and child come home. The Mother’s status in My

Mother Never Worked was just as mighty as Calixta’s, but with a stranger

presentation. This was accomplished by the present-time narrative in the beginning

and end of the story by her daughter. Which reflected on how important the

woman’s actions were so amazing to the family and really drove the point home for

the reader.

Womanhood was a strong theme in the two essays as well. In My Mother

Never Worked she understood the expectations as a lady to marry and raise a family.

She even confronted the worry she felt towards this future for herself in the letters

to her fiancé. She wrote, “ I have told you a dozen times I won’t be afraid of married

life, but when it comes down to setting a date and then picturing myself a married

woman with half a dozen or more kids to look after, it just makes me sick... I am

weeping right now.” Later on in the narrative all the examples of hard work and

sacrifice she does, like learning to garden and care for farm animals, sewing new

cloths from scraps of cloth, and carrying buckets of water up and down miles

The greatest measures of a persons’ strength is during the

worst times, so the woman of My Mother Never Worked should definitely win

mother of the year over Calixta from The Storm.

texts were entirely different. In the story The Storm by Chopin, when Calixta was

confronted with an opportunity to relive old passions she missed in her youth with

Alée she took it. Her motives were never even weighed against her husband’s

potential reactions. She just fell into the other man’s arms and let seduction turn

into sex. Afterwards, she acts like nothing happened when her family returns from

the store after the rains stop. Perhaps the extramarital moment was not that large of

an issue to her. Maybe she figured, “it’s no ones business” and continued on with her

life. Where as the mother from My Mother Never Worked was pictured as a saint

among women. There were no flaws, only strength and love. This may have been

due to the fact the text is narrated as a flashback by one of her daughters after her

death, so the daughter may have painted the memories with “rose-colored