The Good Mother – A Passive Life
"We live in a world...where the decisive deed may invite the holocaust." --John Updike
An interesting question that emerges while reading The Good Mother is: Why did Anna let it happen? Of course, this question must be included among many others, most of which elicit ambiguous answers: What really happened? Was there fault to be assigned? If so, who was at fault? What is a good mother? Can a woman be a good lover and a good mother? Where must sexual boundaries be drawn between children and couples in a household?
Regardless of what it is, the answer to the question Why did Anna let it happen is that she was rendered almost powerless by her gender, class, and social and family background to do anything but let it happen. She spent her life letting things happen.
Anna Dunlap, recently freed from a boring marriage and involved in a sexual awakening with an unconventional man, probably thought of herself as liberated in a very literal way before and during her affair with Leo Cutter. "I had a sense, a drunken irresponsible sense, of being about to begin my life, of moving beyond the claims of my own family, of Brian, into a passionate experiment, a claim on myself." (p. 10) As events played out, however, it became obvious that Anna had not escaped her history and that her "liberation" was just an illusion.
Anna grew up in the shadow of her wealthy, domineering grandfather, her emotionally absent father and her cold, achievement-oriented mother. Her mother ran her life, pushing Anna to practice piano in the hopes she would become a professional musician one day. Anna was learning that she was not in control of her life; she was forced to let life (through her mother's ambitions for her) happen to her.
When she visited her grandparents' summer home in Maine, Anna witnessed her grandfather's overwhelming dominance and saw her grandmother, mother and aunts engaged in interesting but meaningless (in Anna's view) "women's" conversations. When Anna was fourteen, her mother, realizing Anna was not a musical genius, loosened her grip on her daughter and, in fact, ceased to praise her for anything. As Anna's body changed and she became attractive to boys, she tried to define herself through sex, which she found empty and unsatisfying. Once again, Anna was not in control; she let it happen.
I have been told by my patent friends that Mr. Owens recently underwent surgery for weight loss and has lost close to 100 pounds, a great feat and I congratulate him, but I think the USPTO should have the same procedure done and lose Mr. Owens and he can also take along his little deputy he crapped out (yeah, I know a cheap shot). If you would like to share some insights with me then simply respond to this email via a non-government account.
Furthermore, the story of Anna’s battle for her inheritance shows a great deal about popular opinion. Anna, known for the affairs that she had, initially lost her case. Instead of calmly accepting t...
A women suffrage amendment was brought to the U.S. Congress in 1868 but failed to win support as well as a second amendment in 1878. In 1869 a woman named Elizabeth Cady Stanton got together with Susan B. Anthony, a women’s rights activist, and organized an association called the National Woman Suffrage Association. With this union they would gather with women and fight for women’s suffrage. Later, in 1890 they joined with their competitor the American Women Suffrage Association and became the National American Women Suffrage Association. “NAWSA adopted a moderate approach to female suffrage, eschewing some of the more radical feminism of other women’s rights groups in favor of a national plan designed to gain widespread support” (3). What the association did was they changed their initial tactic towards suffrage for women so that they can be able to obtain support from all over. Having little to no movement on the national front, suffragists took the next step to sate level. That was when Eastern states granted women suffrage, but hadn’t spread to Western states.
...faced during her time. When she took her father to court, there were regulations on Anna’s part. Because Anna was unmarried and without means were she remained dependent on her father, looking for support, legally, she was not allowed to take her father to court without prior court consent and for a child to take their parents to court was very rare and hard to get the consent. Also, according to the law Anna was an unprofessional single woman that did not allow her to proceed without an accompanying male counsel or representative who normally is a women’s father or nearest male relative (Ozment, 111). Through the changes that were happening, especially with the Protestant reformation, Anna faced many problems when she was fighting her father in court. Based on Anna’s action it did not seem like the agreed with the Protestants and their views on sex and marriage.
Before she knew it, Anna quickly got overtaken by this passion, and it ultimately led to her own demise, as the love that Vronsky had to offer quickly diminished. This became a problematic force since Anna practically gave up everything she owned to chase the life that this man offered her. She did it in such a manner that she could no longer return back to her family or normal lifestyle. In a way, she was victim to a lifeless marriage by which she found herself to pretend to be happy. When Anna finally gets a shot at love, she realizes all that she has missed, and it is easy to see how she falls victim to such an enamored opportunity. Anna simply wanted to know that she mattered, to have been appreciated and admired. Unfortunately, being a
Anna transcribes her memories in a way that transitions from being able to love freely to being forced to love Alexander Karmyshev out of obligation; this was an arranged marriage by her mother. Anna sees the role of a noblewomen as being completely submissive towards their husbands even under unbearable conditions. The lessons learned from her mother helped shape and control her life. Labzina’s mother instilled the lessons of submission and survival in her mind before departing. Her mother’s motivation for teaching her these things was so that elite people would intercede on her behalf through respect for her. Her mother’s teachings were to:
Alison Bechdel isn’t a normal author. She uses graphics, and wordplay to tell a very engaging, and interesting story. One of these stories titled “The Ordinary Devoted Mother”, Bechdel tells the story of her trying to write a memoir about her mom. One of the major themes in this story is reading, and writing. Bechdel explores what writing is, how it is important, and how she perceives writing herself.
Finally, I will now discuss the repercussions of the wife role and the mask of motherhood on Eva’s relationship with Kevin. Ruddick states, “a ‘good mother’ may well be praised for colluding in her own subordination, with destructive consequences to her and her children” (104). Accordingly, the mask of motherhood strips Eva of her authenticity and integrity, and as it becomes her way of life, it diminishes her power (Maushart 463). Her “anger at the conditions of motherhood…become translated into anger at the child,” so that her relationship with Kevin becomes controlled by the wife role and mask of motherhood (Rich 52). Subsequently, even the act of loving him becomes problematic for her. Eva notes, “the harder I tried, the more aware I became
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
...alized that “a girl was not, as [she] had supposed, simply what [she] was; it was what [she] had to become” she was starting to admit defeat, and then finally when she begins to cry, it is here that the narrator understands that there is no escape from the pre-determined duties that go along with the passage of a child into being a girl, and a girl into a woman, and that “even in her heart. Maybe it (her understanding that conforming is unstoppable) was true”
Anna plays the role of the classic submissive female married to David's classic chauvinist male. "Wanting to remain attractive to her husband, Anna attempts to conform to the eroticized and commodified images of women promulgated in the mass culture" (Bouson 44). Although the novel is set during the 1970"s, the decade of one of the great feminist movements in our history, Anna remains a woman who maintains herself for her husbands benefit. In a critical scene in the novel, the narrator sees Anna applying makeup. When she (the narrator) tells her that it is unnecessary where they are Anna says "He doesn't like to see me without it," and then quickly adds, "He doesn't know I wear it" (41).
Given American obsessions with male mythologies, the writers of American fiction seem to challenge the basic assumptions of American culture. Specially, the Black female writers create and challenge ideals in representing the mother. While on the one hand we see recurring use of the Good mother of mythology, and virtues associated with the life principle (birth, warmth, nourishment, protection, fertility, growth, abundance, etc.). On the other hand. we also see dark and mysterious mothers performing negative roles associated with the Earth Mother. This paper seeks to question the ideals of motherhood and maternity in Black American fiction with special reference to the central mother figure in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and to see if the roles of mother can be analyzed in altruistic terms alone or as something that is determined by the social conditions prevailing at a given moment.
Chaos and drudgery are common themes throughout the poem, displayed in its form; it is nearly iambic pentameter, but not every line fits the required pattern. This is significant because the poem’s imperfect formulation is Owen making a statement about formality, the poem breaks the typical form to show that everything is not functioning satisfactorily. The poem’s stanza’s also begin short, but become longer, like the speaker’s torment and his comrades movement away from the open fire. The rhyming scheme of ABABCDCD is one constant throughout the poem, but it serves to reinforce the nature of the cadence as the soldiers tread on. The war seems to drag on longer and longer for the speaker, and represents the prolonged suffering and agony of the soldier’s death that is described as the speaker dwells on this and is torn apart emotionally and distorts his impressions of what he experiences.
When Jane is shunned by Mr. Brocklehurst in front of the entire Lowood population, Helen is the one person that does not immediately judge Jane. In fact, she makes her feel more comfortable in a place that is filled with punishment and hypocrisy. Though Lowood does not truly feel like home, Helen is able to provide Jane with not only all the compassion she needs as well as support and respect. This is one of the first loves Jane experiences on her journey and it allows her to become more open to the love she finds in her future endeavors.