Through a story of danger and a childlike characterization of Ma, Torres demonstrates Ma does not have inherent motherly qualities. In the chapter “The Lake,” Paps intends to teach Ma and the narrator to swim, an endeavor which almost drowns both of them. The narrator describes the episode saying, “Ma who had nearly drowned me, who had screamed and cried and dug her nails down into me” was “more frenzied and wild than I had ever known her to be” (Torres 21). Almost dragging down the narrator with her, Ma does not exhibit motherly qualities. Instead of protecting her son, who is in the same perilous situation, she protects herself, an action which does not reflect empathy, protection, and reliability. Using words like “screamed, “cried,” and “frenzied,” Torres characterizes the mother as young and wild, making her more childlike than the narrator. Like an animal, she digs “her nails down into” her son. In this moment of danger, she abandons her human side, …show more content…
Through the scene in “The Lake,” Torres demonstrates motherly qualities are, in fact, not instinctual. Torres contrasts the inexperienced Ma with an older, more mature Ma, demonstrating that, over time, mothers develop motherly qualities. Torres describes a solemn last morning, years after the scene in “The Lake,” before the son is sent to an institution to be “institutionalized [to fix his sexuality]” (Torres 117). When illustrating the mother, Torres writes, “[l]ook how she enters, holding a stack of folded clothes, jeans on the bottom, a sweatshirt, some boxer shorts, and on top a pair of socks bundled together. Except for her wild, beautiful face, she looks like a servile woman, a television mom” (Torres 122-123). Torres presents a different mother from “The Lake.” Ma is folding clothes, a stereotypical motherly activity.
First in “Everyday Use” you recognize the differences in all three women throughout the story. The mama
...s Antonio, and she teaches him to look beyond what he first sees. She shows that everything connects, that even his parents’ different live styles rely on each other. Her recognition of this connection “profoundly changes a boy who has lived in fear of his environment” (Novoa 4). This lesson is repeated throughout the novel.
An interesting thing about Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is the fact that it seems to be told from the Mama’s eyes, rather than from one of the, arguably, main characters. This only allows the reader to see Mama’s bias in the entire situation. Because of this bias between her children, the reader can see the stark contrast of the two sisters. Alice tries to portray the importance of embracing heritage and the vulgarity of disregarding the purpose of things for one’s own pleasure.
David’s illustrations shows an intricate but vivid and painful memory of his childhood. His mother, Betty influenced his life in a way that he could not understand at the time. He did not understand the reasons behind some of her attitudes or the peculiar way that she communicated with him. In the first pages of the book David stated: “Mama had her little cough… once
mother, and narrative point of view, to illustrate the tension between the two protagonists and
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
While speaking to her husband in regards to their son, the woman asked, “... could you get him a clean pair of pajamas out of the laundry. ” The woman cares if her son is clean and maintained, the same way she cares if his stomach is full. In fact, she even made “eight molds of the boy’s favorite custard,” knitted him and his father sweaters and provided them both with “two weeks supply of fresh laundered sheets and shirts and towels.” The woman is a mother and a wife but, she has a reserved way of fulfilling her roles. She does not find it necessary to play motherhood and a housekeeper every day or all day long. Evidently, the woman is still different from a typical mother; she is still dealing with depression that keeps her miserable and isolated from her husband and
The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. Many of them were delicious in the role; one of them was the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm. If her husband did not adore her, he was a brute, deserving of death by slow torture. Her name was Adèle Ratignolle” (Chopin 8). The mother women were to be respected, but also pitied, these were women who were trapped within their social rules. Some, like Madame Ratignolle, were content with the role of just being an adoring mother while others, like Edna Pontieller, wanted to shed the shroud of matronly duties and be free to do as she
The illusion of time, particularly the loss or stoppage of time, is apparent in both Peter
The first woman we are introduced to is Mavis. Her relationship with her husband is an example of the type of subservience c...
Throughout the story, the narrator speaks of her mother’s grace and in moments when that grace was put under pressure,
As the matriarch and hoariest associate of the kindred, Mama is a tribute to the capacity of fantasy, since she has lingered to view the fantasy she and her helpmate partake in answered. With the recent domicile, they are well on their route to the achieved fulfillment of their fantasy. Mama’s ultimate instant in the accommodations and the bearing of her flora reveal that although she’s jocund in the matter of going, she preserves to nurture the recollections she has accrued all through her existence. Hansberry signals, then, that the sweetness of fantasy fulfillment is attended by the sweetness of the fantasy itself. Mama hesitates on her route out of the accommodations to reveal honor and recognition of accountability for the flinty service that served in developing the fantasy to proceed
While still not having learned her lesson, the narrator told her mom that she was “a real failure of a Mom” at the beginning of the story. Later on, her perspective changed drastically. After the narrator's father chased her up and down the house, the mother convinces the father to go blow off some steam while she went and talked to the narrator about why they were so concerned. Even though the narrator was in a bad mood, she still accepted her mother's love. “I wailed, but we both knew I was glad she was there, and I needed only a moment's protest to save face before opening that door” (Alvarez, 8). While the two where bonding, they wrote a short, two page essay together. The mother was proud of not only herself but also her daughter
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
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.