Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed

Katniss, after her father’s death, became the sole provider for her family because her mother was unable to be emotionally stable enough to take care of her [Katniss] and her younger sister Prim. Katniss is a very young girl for majority the book, but she does things that no one would expect a teenager to do. She exceeds the expectations of any child her and age and overcomes many challenging hardships for her family. In The Hunger Games, Collins discusses Katniss’s relationship to her father, the sacrifices she made for her family, and the love of Peeta. Katniss’ father was killed in a mining accident and being the older sibling, she took it upon herself to take on the father role for her family (Schneider).

She took over taking care of her younger sister. At around the age of 12, the older daughter built up the courage to leave her mother’s home and move in with her father. She thought her younger sister would be okay on her own. The younger daughter attempted suicide shortly thereafter. She felt as though her mother drove her to it, and still resents her mother for that to this day.

She even turned to prostitution to make money. Finally Fantine, after working and doing anything to make money and still living in poverty, fell ill. She was hospitalized and Valjean would take care of her from time to time. Her only wish was to see her child she loved so much. She was only living to see her. Sadly, though, she died without ever getting to see her beloved Cosette.

Her mother loves her dearly, but was not able to provide her with a great life a child should have lived. Sadly, there was not enough weighing on their relationship her mother welcomed a new husband and more children. Emily seemed to be pushed farther from the entire family. As time goes on Emily grows up, her mother criticizes and blames herself for the distance between the relationships. It is causing tension in their already rocky relationship.

But, she had great reason. Her mother was the heart and soul of their entire family; keeping her brother, sister, and new stepfather all together. Without their mother being the glue that held them together, they all fell apart from each other, not even keeping in touch. How would one feel losing their entire family over the death of their mother? It would not be a quick sting that lasted a week or two, no way.

In the beginning, while she is ironing, the mother of a nineteen-year-old girl reflects on her daughter’s childhood. She is caught between feeling responsible for Emily’s unhappy childhood and realizes that she was powerless in making her life better due to the lack of alternatives. As she is ironing, the mother remembers back to when her eldest daughter was an infant. She was a young, inexperienced mother who followed “like the books said” (204) and considered Emily to be “the first and only one of [her] five [children] that was beautiful at birth” (203). During the worst years of the Depression, her husband deserts the family leaving them to fend for themselves.

She faced tragedy, poverty, discrimination; sexism yet did not let anything stop her. Bartz did not grow up in a traditional household, but was forced to live with her grandparents. Having her mother die at a young age, being taken away from her abusive father, Bartz was left with her grandparents. Bartz struggled to overcome poverty throughout her young life. From going to work as a teenager, nothing was ever enough.

Until that point Reyna’s mother had been the only parental figure she had known. The abandonment didn’t stop at the physical absence of her mother, but also at the emotional unavailability of her mother when she finally did return. In the absence of their mother the Grande children were to be cared for by their paternal grandmother Evila who was largely hostile and neglectful. Though their grandmother provided them with housing and at least some nourishment she was in no way emotionally supportive or loving toward them often blatantly displaying her preference for their cousin Elida prominently as if to reiterate the favoritism. The children were often ostracized amongst their peers due to their status as “orphans”.

Granny Weatherall later think about her long life and the hardship she been through as a single mother raising her children. She also thought about her first love George who did not showed up at their wedding and her husband John who died a young man. Granny rethinks about her life as a mother and her c... ... middle of paper ... ... she was scared and alone. With the Grandmother, she already prepared to die if anything happens. She doesn’t have to wear the fancy outfit for the trip but she did it anyways.

Some mothers are not ready for this job, yet selfishly still choose to keep their children because they are too proud to allow someone else provide their baby with the life they deserve. Child abandonment is a ever rising epidemic not only in The United States, but all around the world. Child abandonment affects the mother, but more importantly, the child that is being abandoned. In the poem by Sandra Maria Esteves titled “Give Thanks”, she lists all the “jobs” a mother does for their children and how special they are, which is something children who are abandoned by their mothers will never experience. The abandonment of a mother leads to negative psychological effects.