Are You My Mother? Essay

The character was illiterate and thus excluded her from others. In the beginning of the story, the shame from the daughter and others was made prevalent as the author wrote “I learned to be ashamed of my mother” (58). The shame and prejudice began to grow when the mother goes to the school to register her daughter. The mother needed and asked for help when she was filling out the forms that were required for her daughter to go to school. The author wrote “The women asks my mother what she means . . . The women still seem not to understand. ‘I can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write,” (60) showing that the women the mother was asking for help, did not understand her question, because her ignorance of other people. Her poor understanding of the question clearly made the mother feel even more ashamed of herself. The author goes on to write “My mother looks at me, then looks away. I know almost all of her looks, but this one is brand new to me.”(61) exhibiting how the mother never felt so ashamed and embarrassed in front of her daughter. Once the woman realizes that she was on a higher “level” than the mother, she agreed to help, the author wrote “and suddenly appears happier, so much more satisfied with everything”(61). The mother was being ridiculed and humiliated by the second, as the other

The mirror on the bedroom wall examines the public perception of her private life. Looking only at its reflection, the audience cannot tell the room is in a mess; the rosebush and the dirt trail are not apparent to the audience. In the mirror, only the back of woman’s head is evident. Her face and her emotions are hidden from the mirror. It appears as if she is doing an ordinary task; she could very well be sitting on the bed, reading a book. She turns her back to the mirror and denies it a true reflection.

The way Bechdel decides to depict the characters through her art is a major factor in how the characters are developed, and can be a major factor in how the story is perceived. At a first glance, the depiction of Bechdel’s persona, Alison, in “Are You My Mother?” appears to have very masculine features. An uninformed reader may at first assume that the story is about a man. However, through the dialogue and narration it is quickly revealed that the drawings are depictive of a homosexual woman. Bechdel’s portrayal of herself in the graphics as having very masculine features says a lot about her self-perception. She creates her own persona, so the character seen in the cartoons is Bechdel in her own image and likeness. Clearly, Bechdel illustrated her comic so that the character bared a strong resemblance to her own self-image. Later on in the story, starting on page 83, Alison is depicted wearing glasses and she bears a much stronger resemblance to actual pictures of Bechdel. In several scenes throughout the story, including the opening scene, Bechdel has dreams of herself as a child. These scenes showed a young Alison, dressed in what would widely be considered boys clothing (Bechdel 73). The illustrations as a whole are very sexually ambiguous. This may be perceived as an allusion to Bechdel’s struggles with her own sexuality. However, the refrences to Bechdel’s struggles go beyond the art.

But, for the first time, her daughter stares into her eyes, and her response is astounding as well as startling, considering her age. She says, “Mommy, there's a world in your eye. Mommy, where did you get that world in your eye?", and for the first time since the beginning of the piece, we experience Alice’s confidence once again (6). She realizes her self-worth, and that it is not determined by her appearance, she says, “Yes indeed, I realized, looking into the mirror. There was a world in my eye” and although she went through a good portion of her life believing that she wasn’t beautiful, or sufficient, it was all worth it because it taught her to love herself even more now (6). To end the piece, she illustrates a dream she had: it’s her old self-doubting self and another her, confident and radiating, coming together. She is once again able to speak of herself in a positive way, she states that the latter self is “beautiful, whole, and free. And she is also [her]”, which, in a way, exhibits that same attitude she had as a two-year-old (6). Twenty-seven-year-old Alice completely contradicts twelve-year-old Alice, who would “abuse [her] eye” and who did “not pray for sight” but “for beauty” (4); she now speaks of herself

Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, documents the author's discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following: sexual orientation, family relationships, and suicide. Unlike most autobiographical works, Bechdel uses the comics graphic medium to tell her story. By close-reading or carefully analyzing pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home one can get a better understanding of how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to render specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages thematically connects to the book as a whole. As we will see, this portion of the book echoes the strained relationship

“What My Mother Doesn’t Know” by Sonya Jones was written in 2001.The book consists of events that aren’t out of the ordinary in a young freshman life,also it is solely composed of armature poetry,almost as if it is diary entries.The main character is Sophie who lives in Cambridge,Massachusetts.She is just entering high school and going through all the typical stages such as becoming distant from her mother and boys are always on her mind.As each poem is written it is enviable to see the maturity that has taken over her.The story really connects with its audience in the sense that when they were in their freshman year it was okay to be awkward and fall in love with every guy you laid eyes on.It is simply a part of growing up,but luckily she also shows that after she came

There have been a vast number of lives that have touched mine. Many different people have shared a piece of their soul in my formation. However, it is my mother who is the most important and most influential person in my life. My mother raised me by herself since the day I was born. My father was abusive and she left to make a better life for the both of us. She has worked as many as four jobs at one time. My mother wants to make sure my brothers and I have a better life than she did. It hasn’t always been easy for her, taking care of us on her own, trying to pay bills and making sure we had everything we needed. My mom has always had us involved in sports at a very young age. We always were doing something or involved in something

The commonalities between unrelated essays can certainty astonish readers. It is amazing to find so many similarities once they have been critically read and analyzed. In the essay and video, “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger points out the growing popularity of reproduction, and investigates the hidden messages lying behind a variety of art pieces. In addition, the graphic memoir, “Are You My Mother”, written by, Alison Bechdel discusses the “queer” relationship with her mother, and the obstacles she faces while writing a memoir about her deceased father. Finally, in Judith Halberstam’s essay, “Animating Revolt and Revolting Animation” Halberstam questions the sexual deposition in animated movies and identifies the collective or individualist

The mother-daughter relationship is often scrutinized, publicized, and capitalized on. Whether from tell-all biographies, to humorous sit-coms, or private therapy sessions, this particular relationship dynamic gives some of the most emotion-activating memories. When female authors reflect and write about their relationships with their mothers, they have a tendency to taint their reflections with the opinions they have as an adult, reviewing the actions of their mother when they were young. These opinions set the tone of the story independently and in conjunction with the relationship itself and manifest in creative literary styles that weave an even more intricate story. Case in point, when reviewing the two literary works “I Stand Here

I read the Price of Hope - A story of survival, about a young Haitian who was sent to the United States to join her father as her mother was seeking a better lifestyle for her and her sister; to remove them from a government that was in turmoil. Although, it was a short story, it filled me with some unforeseen emotions that I didn't know a book could stir up inside of me; suspicion, empathy, and anger. My heart went out to Nadege and her sister - as I cannot imagine how a child must feel when having to leave their homeland and their family members while heading to an unknown place - at 10 years of age. I'm sure she must have felt moving the United States was a BIG mistake more than once.

I can still remember vividly the day my mother passed away. My mother passed away at a critical point in my life when I was seventeen years old from a short term illness. She was sick for a week and I remember thinking this could be serious, however, my mother declined to go to the hospital because of the distance and financial hardship. I had loss my father when I was three years old, so my mother was a single mother. I have step sisters and brother, but I was not particularly close to them. Losing my mother was a defining moment in my life for it changed my life irrevocably. I was devastated, but I had to become strong, proactive and it spurred me to choose a new career path.

There are many people that have the strongest impact in your lives. They are your role model and you want to be like them. These can be your family members, friends, or people that you just see on T.V. Whoever they might be they impacted your life because of want you learned from them. One person that had the strongest impact that made me who I am today is my mom. My mom had impacted my life and made me who I am today because she taught how to treat other how I want to be treated, don't judge other people because of their looks, and if you don't try you won't succeed. These are only the few lesson that I learned from my mom as a kid.

What can one say about their mother? One may talk about her positive and negative

At age three I said “I love you mommy.” At age seven I said, “Mom, stop kissing my cheek!” At age fifteen I say, “You’re so annoying – I can’t wait to move out!” At age eighteen, I’ll be saying “I miss home.” At age twenty-seven I’ll be saying “I miss my mom.” At age forty I’ll be saying “I miss you so much; I wish you didn’t have to go.” My mom is the sun to my shine.

I often wondered if my mother would have chosen to immigrate to the United States of America, after repatriating to Holland, to begin a new life from absolutely nothing but the clothes on our backs for the second time, if my parents had stayed together. Was it their divorce that inspired Mom to lead us on our path to prosperity? Eventually I understood that my Mom’s ultimate motivation was her vision of a brighter future for her family, regardless of her marital status. In Holland, Mom could not bare to watch her mother be the sole breadwinner and living off a Dutch government's subsidized income was equally unacceptable. Following Aasje’s death, Evie observed Oma, overcome with grief, lose her spirit, and she aspired for a better life