Adelaide's Lungs: A Fictional Narrative

A mother and a child. A love that transcends no bounds. To give up a child leaves a hole that nothing can fill. An empty abyss. In the heat of the moment, the mother is convinced that she is doing right by the child. Giving that child a life that they themselves will not be able to give. It hurts to leave, but they know deep down, that the sacrificing of their happiness for the child’s well-being is what is best. In the photograph Mother and child by Jerome Liebling, the mother stands, child in arms, before the steps. Before the steps of giving up the one piece of joy she has in her life. Holding a blank expression on her face, trying not to show any emotion as it would only make what she is about to do harder. She is tired, worn down by the weight of the world. Contemplating what she is about to do, although she knows it will not help.

Some discoveries may be the result of significant experiences that one undergoes. In moving on from these experiences, the discoveries can be provoked and have the ability to open the eyes of individuals. Gwen Harwood’s “Father and Child” explores the growth and maturation of a child. Harwood shows the juxtaposition between innocence and maturity and the way that discovering this deepens the perception one has of the world. The

Before having children, adults are just adults. They only have to worry about taking care of themselves. However, after having children, adults become parents. Unlike other adults, parents have added responsibilities with caring for themselves and now their children. Along with this comes endless worry for the children. In a parent's case, though, worrying is synonymous with loving, and as most parents know, it doesn’t waver. Throughout history, a parent's love has been captured in books like My Sister’s Keeper and in films like Everything, Everything. In “The Pediatrician Retires” by Sharon Olds, repetition is utilized in coordination with kinesthetic imagery and indirect characterization to illustrate the unending, yet rewarding life of parenting.

Scheper-Hughes provides a controversial breakdown of the mothers' evident lack of concern to the death of their babies as not a repression of grief, but as a plan for endurance. The mothers, by allowing themselves to form attachment to only the babies who have already verified their capability to survive by doing so during early infancy, these women can increase the existence odds of their strongest children. Modern ideas about "mother love," and about mother-infant bonding as a naturally occurring process that in general occurs in the first few moments of a baby's life, are the cultural result of the statistical differences which allows women to give birth to just a few children, each of which she may be expecting to raise to adulthood.

In the poem “The Child’s Sight” by Hy Sobiloff, the speaker portrays a reflective mother, who begins to recall her own childhood days while spending fond time with her child and gains back the innocence within herself. The speaker is reminiscent of how as a child, she has the freedom to say anything as she please and no one will feel offended in any way possible. She sees her child “[saying] what [he see] when [he sees] it,” while she does not on the other hand (2). She feels restrictive in her adulthood environment, while her child is living life freely. In addition, as the speaker spends more time with her child, she is gradually regaining the innocence of a child within herself. She is “learning the child’s way [as she picks] up wood pieces

Right now, she is trying to soothe the kids. She does this every night, and every night, the children go to bed with the promise that tomorrow would be a better day. I can hear her walk back into the room, but my eyes remain fixated on the fire, hypnotized by their dance; a fiery consumption that sends up sparks and ash. She silently begins to clean up the shattered mess, sweeping up the shards of glass, and soaking up the whiskey and gin. Her face is a ghostly white, completely devoid of emotion. The soft tinkling of the glass is? accompanied by the low crackling coming from the hungry flames.

“Damn. This. Stupid. Thing.” Freddy grumbled under his breath, wiping the beads of sweat that had begun accumulating on his brow. Frustrated, Fred interlocked his fingers behind his back, resulting in a loud CRACK from his spine. He sighed heavily as he dropped his hands to his side.

From the conception of a child, throughout the entire pregnancy, and the daily, selfless life of parents, devoted sacrifices are made. With the absence of those whole-hearted sacrifices that start before our conception, the current life we posses would cease to exist. Accordingly, mothers sacrifice for their children even before conception by coming to terms with the many struggles she will have to face. At the beginning of the pregnancy, many discomforts arise, such as nausea, dizziness, and stiffness in the body, sudden weight gain, and headaches. Nevertheless, the sacrifices a mother makes carry many risks for her body because she loses sleep, food, and in some cases, hygiene in order to provide the best environment for the child. However, the pregnancy itself has many beauties for the mother, causing her to disregard all the negative aspects of it. During a pregnancy, the physical and spiritual bond between a mother and her child awakens. That physical contact throughout the pregnancy and at childbirth demonstrates the beginning of an unbreakable bond. During and after childbirth, the mother’s body undergoes many changes that she may not be ready to accept. Still, with a determined mind, the mother accepts her weight gain, the stretching of her skin tissue, and potential scarring after childbirth. Out of the 18 strenuous years of raising a child, all of them are equally difficult. Every year, the mother

The women encircle her, palm to palm, rising, crying, wailing. The Crone Song. Soiled linens make shapes on the floor. A child cries, the earth opens its door. A river rushes, waterfall—red. The wind blows in, her lungs expand. The mound softens, her door open wide. The child arrives, an ocean’s tide. Quaking Aspen shimmers moonlight. Its silver branches cradle the night. Tamarack Thunder, the Earth gives her name. Pipsissewa, small and delicate, but strong her flame.

The extremity of this situation already provides ample space for a human struggle to be developed considering the natural pain of childbirth and the rough wilderness of Mongolia. The reaction of the speaker shows how changed her mentality and perspective is by the life changing event that she experiences. Initially the speaker fears childhood and motherhood due to her own insecurities. “I didn’t like childhood, and I was afraid that I’d have a child who didn’t, either. I was afraid I would be an awful mother” is a statement by the speaker that expresses this fear of very important life stages early on. However, after pregnancy and experiencing the human struggle that childbirth entails, the attitude once expressed fades away. The speaker is in awe at the birth of her child and every feature of the new being is amazing to her – “Every finger, every toenail, the golden shadow of his eyebrows coming in…all of it was miraculous, astonishing”. As a result of being transfixed by the miracle of childbirth, the speaker’s insecurities and fears are erased as she is enlightened from the struggle of the “unholy storm” they described childbirth being to the newfound beauty of

Inside, fires raged with even more passion and I saw, to my surprise, thousands upon thousands of pyres, and damned souls tied to stakes above them, naked and beaten to almost beyond recognition. But what truly struck me was the noise- there had been such silence for so long, and now, the cries of anguish and pain nearly broke my heart. I turned away, and Joan led me to a twisting staircase, and we began climbing and climbing, up and up the spire.

Sophia’s mother’s grip tightened around her small body as the rotting floorboards above creaked under the pressure of solid combat boots. Quaking with fear her mother knew that they had no chance. Two worn hands gently held her lifeless cheeks, as her mother, consumed by terror and love, kissed her forehead and placed her in a dark corner. With the small beams of light that slithered their way through the cracks, the confused little girl saw tears streaming down her mama’s pale face. The haunting sound of boots stomping with pride ceased as they stood above them like animals callously hunting their prey. She raised her quivering finger up to her chapped lips as the piercing sound of gunshots split the silence and a frenzied spray of metal showered down, missing them by inches. The floorboard above was torn up revealing her mama to the monsters. Sophia remembered being frightened when her teacher read a

His soul floats in a space unknown to him. His body is curled like a ball. He sleeps with his knees to his face and arms wrapped around his legs. He’s unaware of his situation and continues to glide comfortably in the space that surrounds him.

A calming voice washed right over my mind as I drifted into a dream like state. Ferns grew around me, surrounding my body. The moderately comfortable couch beneath me turned into a hard dirt ground littered with rocks that dug into my knee, scraping over the scarred tissue. The humid air relaxed me but the thought what could come brought me straight back into a pit of fear. Smoke began crawled around my throat and began choking my already short breaths. The flames around me destroyed the beauty of the forest, consuming the perfect paradise. Yellow and orange expanded throughout the sky, ripping through the perfect blue day. Soon I would probably be engrossed by the blaze, if I am not found by the savages first. I fear what they will do to

Red light and heat, blistering heat, radiating from the very walls of our houses and buildings, the fire jumping from building to building, house to house, the shadow in the sky circling above the heads of the villagers as they rushed to escape into open space to evade the smoke that emanated from their residences which clawed its way down their throats, filled their lungs and and irritated the eyes. Panic and confusion followed, individuals looking for