Analysis Of A Sterotypical Mother

The poem “Mother Who Gave Me Life”, written by Gwen Harwood explores the extremely personal relationship between a daughter and her mother. It focus’ on the universal role of women as mothers and nurturers throughout time. It explores the intimate moments and memories between a daughter and her mother, and gives us as the reader an insight into the relationship between the two.

TS - In the poem, “Mother who gave me Life”, Harwood explores the memory of motherhood as a quintessential part of being human.

"The Mother," by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a sorrowful, distressing poem about a mother who has experienced numerous abortions. While reading the poem, you can feel the pain, heartache, distress and grief she is feeling. She is both remorseful and regretful; nevertheless, she explains that she had no other alternative. It is a sentimental and heart wrenching poem where she talks about not being able to experience or do things with the children that she aborted -- things that people who have children often take for granted. Perhaps this poem is a reflection of what many women in society are feeling.

Mothers are typically seen as kind, loving, and nurturing, at least in a perfect world, that’s how they are. Rather, in the real world many of us wish that is how all mothers are. Various situations can lead to a woman to be too mothering. It is a factor that transcends real life. This conflict causing dynamic is very prevalent in numerous stories, films, and plays. Two plays where it is shown in significance are Machinal and The Glass Menagerie. In both cases, the actions taken by the mother roles in the shows, resulted in some of the character’s roles ending in unfortunate events of some sort.

The spacing and structure of the poem is set up to allow flow and momentum in the poem and its narrative. The speaker’s voice is present with emotion as emphasised in a natural rhythm of thought offering an honest and bare interpretation of motherhood. The open “blank space” of the poem encourages a calm and breathy atmosphere, fulfilling a mood of tranquility and bliss. Each stanza is short with a couple quick fragmented thoughts before closing each section with the power of a single word. Each stanza breaks apart a separate thought filled with a loving passion the speaker uses to stress the beauty, wonder, and over-flowing love present in motherhood. To better the structure, the poem itself is broken into three parts, each representing a stage of motherhood. The first segment of motherhood that is represented is during the moments while the baby is still in the womb and the mother waits in anticipation for the baby to arrive. This “honeymoon” phase is expressed with a tone filtered through a perception of rose-coloured glasses and excitement as the mother is in utter bliss to carry a life into the world. The

Both Mother Who Gave Me Life by Gwen Harwood and Woman to Child by Judith Wright, explore the bonds shared between mother and child. While both poems explore the same themes, each poet uses different techniques in doing so. Woman to Child is from the point of view of a mother. Although the poet has used the personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘me’, the poem is not from Wrights point of view, rather, from every woman’s, as majority of women have experienced the intimate experience of becoming a mother. Like Woman to Child, Mother Who Gave Me Life also uses personal pronouns, but unlike Woman to Child, Mother Who Gave Me Life is a personal elegy for Harwood’s mother.

There are many hard jobs in the world. One of the hardest jobs is being a mother. In Rita Dove’s Daystar, we watch as a mother of two struggles to find a moment of solace in the chaotic world that is mothering. In this lyric poem, we find evidence of double entendre, thick imagery, and even some sarcasm. We watch as the mother seeks for a moment where she is “nothing” and nothing can bother her (Dove 21). We even see her achieve this moment of “pure nothing” where she is sat outback, watching the crickets, or the leaves, or the back of her eyelids (7-11, 22). It seems the weight of raising her children without her husband’s assistance is beginning to weigh down on her, and her spirit. In a patriarchal world we can understand how the father would be the one who was off at work, where the mother is the one who is to stay home with the children. This is a system that has been set in place for centuries. Due to the time in which this poem was written, 1986, we feel a sense of dissatisfaction and resentment from the mother about the way the things in her life have turned out. She may feel as though it is not fair for her husband to be the one who gets to leave to go to work all day while she is left to take care of their children. She may also not even realize this is how she feels. Due to the second wave of feminism, we can get a sense that she is unhappy with the role that’s been given to her, as

Brooks creates a horrific imagery that abortions are terrible; and in the poem “The Mother “,she mirrors herself to reality to show the missed opportunities of a child, that women who have aborted their children, will miss. In the poem, it pinpoints a woman’s experience of aborting a child, and then feeling guilty about it, as a mother. In contrast to the author of the poem, Gwendolyn Brooks is a woman who has also aborted a child numerous of times, feels relentless. She communicates with her audience, women, through the poem to recap what the unborn children would become in the future such as singers and workers. “You were born, you had body, you died. It is you never giggled or planned or cried.” When Brooks talk about the missed opportunities that women will never see, she refers to a mother with treacherous experiences. Symbolically, she reflects as a role model for all women who have undergone the situation.

In Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “The Mother”, the author expresses a lot of her thoughts and feelings in order to share her experience. It is written in the first person and the narrator is adopted by the author herself, Gwendolyn Brooks, who embodies a weaken mother. In this poem, Gwendolyn Brooks tries to portray what abortion is for a woman and to describe the harsh truth about how women feel afterwards. Thus, this poem is mostly targeted to aim females and their feelings. First of all, abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. First, the narrator uses many imageries, description, and a precise choice of words to explain this emotional topic of abortion. Second, her use

R.F Briessendens “ A free-talented tongue: some notes on the poetry of Gwen Harwood” can be found in the “Poetry Criticisms” volume 160 in which the latter provides multiple interpretations , from academics and poets, of the Gwen Harwood’s poem “In the park”. Most notable is the interpretation of the former poem by the esteemed poet and academician Andrew Taylor. In specific terms, Andrew Taylor serves to discuss Gwen’s transition from the life a poet to that of a woman without an identity. Essentially, Taylor’s interpretation of the former poem informs other literary academics, or even layman readers, of the destructive nature of which motherhood can be derived from . Taylors interpretation is significant as it relates to the overall topic of motherhood. Thus, it would be imperative to use Taylors succinct, well developed in depth discussion of Gwen Harwood’s “In the park” for my own literary research essay on Harwood’s treatment of motherhood.

In the Park is an engaging and eye-opening poem published in early 1960’s. The author of the Poem, Gwen Harwood, is Australian born and is often regarded as one of Australia’s finest poets. Her work is primarily situated on the subject of motherhood. Through her poems, such as In the Park and Suburban Sonnet she shows the hardships and inner struggles that mothers encounter. The underlying message of the poem is showing how a young mother feels as though her children have deprived her of happiness and she regrets the life she has chosen. The theme of motherhood is prevalent in this poem however it shows the alternative side. The dominant view is usually one where the mother shows the purest, undeniable and strong love for her children. Harwood explains the side of motherhood which is not joyous but overwhelming and tiring. Throughout it is made clear that wants to expose the reader to the truth that is often concealed about motherhood.

(Christina R. Williams 2008) In contrast, Edna is not close to being the mother-women children; but I wouldn 't give myself. I can 't make it more clear; it 's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.” (Chopin 10-13) Edna does not run towards her children if they have fallen or tend to them if they are sick. However, she is caring for them and demonstrates such when she buys her children chocolates or periodically hugs them. She begins to open up to the idea that women don’t necessarily have to lose their identities to their children to show love or even have children at all. In the present day, debates and books have begun to show a huge advancement in the expectation of women in motherhood. It is argued that the ‘motherly instinct’ to which Edna referred to is only a societal idea and that women do not have to feel guilty if they do not experience it. (Jessica Bennett 2012) Edna combats the idea of how a mother should act subconsciously and her ideas are now seen in present day society. Even though she has the epitome of motherly instincts as her friend, Edna manages to be her own person with her own plans on how a woman should as a mother.

Gwen Harwood explores through many of her poems the role of women in society in which reflects the challenges of the changing nature of Australian society and expectations of women. Harwood highlights the stultifying world of domesticity and the importance of identity in relation to motherhood, by challenging dominant values and mainstream beliefs. Harwood criticizes the male dominated society and channels the zeitgeist of 1960s feminism, by depicting the entrapment of motherhood in a domestic life and reinforcing of loss of identity within her poems. In both of Harwood's poems 'suburban Sonnet' and 'In the Park', the common themes of motherhood and loss of identity is enforced using a wide variety of literally techniques to portray the inner pain and anguish felt by Harwood in a patriarchal society.

In the poem “Mother Who Game Me Life”, Harwood relates to a profoundly personal experience and also reflects upon human history to display the self-sacrificing figure of motherhood. Here, the declination of a mother to her daughter throughout the passage of time and change, is made eternal by the typical nurturing role of a mother, that is universal to the human condition. The individual experience is expressed through Harwood’s personal tone of reflection and sentimentality, in which the use of personal pronouns convey a confidential and sincere connection between a daughter and her mother. “Mother who gave me life, the wisdom I would not learn from you”, strikes unity within the audience through the use of her authentic reflection on a universal

When a woman becomes a mother she takes on the expected responsibility of bonding with her child. In The Flats the "mama" is the women who "raises" the child, usually for life (Stack, 1974, p.48). The "mama" may raise the child and the natural