A Mothers Love: shown through a Canadian Short Story Whenever you see a movie, or read a book about a mother and child bond, there is always a common theme involved no matter which country you are in, Protection. The mother is usually the one protecting the child. In Survival, by Margaret Atwood, she states that women in Canadian short stories are important in regards to protecting their young. They can help them out of situations, or save them from danger. However, they can also be shown as the victims, facing struggles in their own daily lives. Mothers are of great importance to Canadian short stories and can be shown in and characterized in many different ways. In Margret Atwood’s story Survival, specifically in chapter 10 Ice Women vs Earth Mothers, Canadian authors show mothers differently but there’s always one common theme. They are strong and powerful. Mothers are written to be tough, sterile, suppressed, and granite-jawed. Living their lives with intensity is what they do. They have to be strong due to the fact they have been somewhat scarred all their life. They can also be compared to …show more content…
This is a story about two mothers who go so far as fighting to help protect their children. The cow fights to protect her child from the Bear whereas the Bear is fighting so that her starving children can have some food. The Bear was being powerful for standing up to fight the Cow and the Cow was strong for keeping her ground and not being frightened by the Bear. In the end however, they eventually became the victims, dying and being killed instead of one of them being the true hero which reflects back to the comment in the chapter, “Diana’s have a way of dying” (). The Bear was only trying to fight the Cow because her cubs were starving and need some help. The Bear was trying to protect her children from starvation or in other words, the danger of starving to
Motherhood begins from the moment a woman conceives. The mother and the child have an immediate bond. The ability to create life and bring it into the world is magical and it changes the woman emotionally, physically and mentally. An example of a remarkable mother-daughter bond in history would be that of the Native American women and their daughters. In A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris, the bonds between the three main characters, Rayona, Christine and Ida is a complete contrast to that of the Native American women.
No matter what actions or words a mother chooses, to a child his or her mother is on the highest pedestal. A mother is very important to a child because of the nourishing and love the child receives from his or her mother but not every child experiences the mother’s love or even having a mother. Bragg’s mother was something out of the ordinary because of all that she did for her children growing up, but no one is perfect in this world. Bragg’s mother’s flaw was always taking back her drunken husband and thinking that he could have changed since the last time 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.
To begin, during the 19th and early 20th centuries Canada was industrializing; thus, there was a shift from rural farming to urban industrialism. This meant that women could no longer participate in the family earning, the family act of living off of the fruits of your labour from the farm because men were being moved to the factories were there existed a wage. Women were excluded from this type of employment because there of an ‘ideology of domesticity’ that claimed that “women were to be mothers and housewives and to exhibit piety, purity, domesticity and submissiveness.” There was a belief that if women entere...
When intensive mothers are busy with thier responsibilities in the public sphere, due to their belief that a mother is the central caregiver, their temporary replacement must exclusively be female (Hays 414). Even with a female nanny who “leaves the place in a mess, makes a petty point of not putting the dishwasher on […], never gives the correct change from the supermarket and “loses” all the receipts” (Pearson 84), Kate still makes every effort to keep the nanny in her family. From the perspective of intensive mothers, men are not capable of providing the same quality of care that a woman is able to provide (Hays 414). From a gender essentialist perspective, Kate argues that “Emily and Ben need me, and it’s me that they want. […] Daddy is the ocean; Mummy is the port, the safe haven they nestle in to gain the courage to venture farther and farther out each time” (Pearson 169). Therefore, intensive mothers find “alternate mothers,” that is, credentialed female child-care providers (Hays 412) such as Paula, Kate’s nanny, as well as Jo, Alice’s nanny who are able to promote the intellectual enrichment of their
Mcnab, Miriam. "Aboriginal Women's Issues". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: Historica Canada, 2006. Web. 8 Feb 2006
Poverty is a significant threat to women’s equality. In Canada, more women live in poverty than men, and women’s experience of poverty can be harsher, and more prolonged. Women are often left to bear more burden of poverty, leading to ‘Feminization of poverty’. Through government policy women inequality has resulted in more women and children being left in poverty with no means of escaping. This paper will identify some key aspects of poverty for Canadian women. First, by identifying what poverty entails for Canadian women, and who is more likely to feel the brunt of it. Secondly the discussion of why women become more susceptible to poverty through government policy and programs. Followed by the effects that poverty on women plays in society. Lastly, how we can reduce these effects through social development and policy.
In the literary, Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros we are able to analyze the short story through a feminist perspective, due to the feminist critical critical theory. A literary criticism has at least three primary purposes in developing critical thinking skills, enabling us to understand, analyze, and judgement works of literature, of any type of literature. It resolves any questions or problem within a literary work that we do not understand from merely reading the literature. Look into multiple alternative outcomes to the literature and decide which the better outcome in the end is. Form our own judgements, our thoughts about what we feel from the literature. By analyzing in depth Sandra Cisneros as an author, we can see her as
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
The women of Canada are still working hard at home but there are their men, following right behind with a basket a laundry. Researchers report that the idea of the "women’s job" is losing common interest as both the wife and her husband challenge the ancient rules about gender-based roles. Research shows that lots of fatherly parents are doing the diaper duty more now than ever. And in the number of relationships in which the females are usually the primary source of support is now three in ten. Even though the idea of the mothering continues to spread thru-out cultural messages related to parenthood, the Canadian house household, little by little, is enclosing on the idea that "gender doesn’t define domestic destiny". "There
Judith Minty's story, "Killing the Bear," is a rather chilling tale about a woman who shoots a bear to death. The story is not merely a simple account of the incident however. It is full of stories and facts about bears, which affect how the reader reacts to the story. In the beginning, the reader expects the bear to be portrayed as a cold-blooded monster who must be killed for the safety of the primary character however this expectation is foiled throughout the story and the reader sees the bear in a very different light. Due to the stories and facts given about bears throughout the story, the reader comes to pity the bear, but most will still acknowledge the necessity of killing him.
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
In the beginning of the story we are introduced to a young girl and the setting for the story is laid out. It is through the setting and background information we can compare life to today and the way we live. The young girl is traveling through the woods with her grandmothers cow at dusk. “The woods were already filled with shadows one June evening, just before eight o'clock” (Jewet) The girl is about the age of nine and she is
The relationship between a mother and her family is one of strength and commitment. A mother will go through long anything to make sure her family is safe. In 1982, in Lawrenceville Georgia, Mrs. Angela Cavallo saved her son, Tony Cavallo,who was pinned down by his Chevrolet Impala. The Chevrolet slipped off his car jack and fell on Tony. Angela was able to lift the car and then provide CPR for her son and saved his life. Family is the most important thing, and Ma demonstrates her maternal characteristics throughout the book to show that sticking together saves families.
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.