Theme Of The Poem The Mother

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“To say there had been a loss was ludicrous; one lost a shoe or a set of keys. You did not suffer the death of a child and say there was a loss. There was a catastrophe. A devastation. A hell” -Jodi Picoult. In Gwendolyn Brooks free verse poem “The Mother”, she makes the reader feel her agony and guilt over her decision to abort her children by using both irony, (her title for example), and a use of literal meaning- “Abortions will not let you forget” (1). Brooks’ theme in this poem seems to lean heavily on guilt- “I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed/ children” (11-2) and blame- “Though why should I whine,/ Whine that the crime was other than mine?-“ (22-3). Throughout the poem she points out things that she and her unborn children can never do; she can’t …show more content…

Someone might argue that you become a mother as soon as fertilization takes place while another says you don’t become a mother until the child is born. One might point out that perhaps she had a child before her abortions, (Brooks did have two children), thus making her title truthful. If going out on a limb, someone could think that another ironic point is her reason for getting the abortions, she was worried about her circumstances. Perhaps she was at a bad point in her life and wouldn’t be able to care for the child(ren), so she “stole [their] births and [their] names” (17). By not having the child(ren), she could protect them from starvation, disease, and neglect. Overall, Brooks has a direct and overpowering way of making readers feel moved for her situation. Abortion is such a hard topic for everybody to discuss and often leads to protests, arguments, and physical disputes on both sides. It seems the simplest solution, (which is NOT abortion), for someone who doesn’t want or can’t manage the care required for a child, would be to practice

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