Lalita Tademy´s Cane River and My Mom

The story of “Cane River” follows the lives of three woman; Suzette, Philomene, and Emily. These woman experience many hardships, and tragedies throughout their lives, but through it all they still find a way for their family to prosper. I chose this story to write about because there was one woman “Cane River” that reminded me my mother. Suzettes mother Elisabeth is the one who made the lives of all these woman possible. She isn’t really mentioned, and she is kind of invisible, but has her say-so’s throughout the story. I also believe she is not understood by her daughter because to me they tend to bump heads a little in the story. This reason in particular is why Elisabeth reminds me of my mother, Diane. My mother was a very well-tempered woman, who kept to herself. Like Suzette, I didn’t know much about my mother’s background, or a lot of the pain and hardship she went through until I was older. This is when I realized why my mother conducted herself the way she did, because of all the pain she had built up inside of her from her past. For example; it was very hard to get my mother to talk during emotional situations, she was always quiet and would just mostly stare at you in silence. My mother was born in Philadelphia on October 3rd, 1966. Diane was the oldest of her four siblings, and if it’s as common as I think older siblings tend to have it harder than the others because they have to set examples, their looked up to as the protectors, and are just assigned a lot of responsibility at a young age. My mother was always stuck watching and taking care of her younger siblings. Sometimes she would get in trouble for not making sure they stayed out of trouble. Not having her own privacy was common for her, since they lived in a... ... middle of paper ... ...e the money to pay for my lesson and attire, so they pulled me out of the activity. I was angry at her for that and assumed she didn’t understand how it felt to have something that you love be taken away from you, when in fact she knew all to well. I found out so much about my mother and came to accept that even though she did not do all the right things with raising me, or the things I thought she should have done she did her best and I grew up to be a very respectful, intelligent young lady. Just as my mother did the best she could for her situation, Elisabeth did the best she could and though she may not have done all the things that we believed or her daughter believed she should do, she still did the best she could do for the situation she was in, and that’s all that matters in the end. That to me, is what determines whether a woman is a good woman’s or not.