Margaret : A Loving And Devoted Mother

Opportunities for an individual to develop understanding of themselves stem from the experiences attained on their journey through life. The elements which contribute to life are explored throughout Gwen Harwood’s poems, At Mornington and Mother Who Gave Me Life, where the recollection of various events are presented as influences on the individual’s perception of the continuity of life. Both poems examine the connections between people and death in relation to personal connections with the persona’s father or mother. By encompassing aspects of human nature and life’s journey, Harwood addresses memories and relationships which contribute to one’s awareness of life.

This apprises the reader on how Margaret is kinda being bi-polar and how she just faked the whole thing about her being sad. By her crying, she indirectly professes that she cares about her husband but in reality she’s a brutal women who does really care about him.

Mother: was a very confident woman who believed in high morals and ethic. Known for being very composed, calm, and confident. Very tough lady who harvested the crops, maintained a beautiful home, and took care of all of the farm animals. Also, a deep in her religion as her husband was. 3 sons as a single mom, Communist terrorist came into her

Helen’s death became a meaningful experience during Lily’s adulthood. Lily’s younger sister, Helen had found herself in an insecure position as a young pregnant woman where she considered herself no longer fitted in society. Instead, of moving back to her parents, she moves in with Lily where she could not do anything to prevent Helen from committing suicide. This demonstrates to the readers, how tough it was for Lily to lose her sister, knowing that she had a great and long life ahead of her. Instead of Lily doing what she enjoyed the most all she could think about was her sister’s death and feeling nothing but, hopelessness and, pain. The readers are able to note how significant this passage is because losing someone close and building good memories was a strong thing for Lily to let go. She preferred staying home in bed and there were even times where everything bothered her such as the birds chirping and the kids laughing, which made her considered in quitting her job as a teacher. In conclusion, as Lily slowly begins to recover,

As Mother Who Gave Me Life is an elegy, the poem is reflective of Harwood’s mother’s life.

John got older and found someone else still remembering his beloved wife. Mr. John moved out of the farmhouse but knocked the house down so that all would be left there is Bessie. He never got over her but he was able to start a new life. The kids would go from time to time to stand around the spot where their mother laid to rest at. Bessie was the best woman ever because she would starve plenty nights before she watched her family starve. The reason of her being buried there behind the farmhouse was so that the family would never forget her and that she had no family left around. Bessie was a very young mannered woman who did her best at

She knew her family was never safe where they lived. She was a brilliant young girl, she understood more than most adults. Even though she wasn’t the richest or the best dressing girl in town, her heart for everyone

She struggled to overcome these tragic parental issues every day with her aunt Addie. To begin with, Hope got through these trying times by holding on to her aunt Addie. On page six Hope says, “Addie’s been my number-one constant. She stood by me in the hospital at my little oxygen tent telling me to come on and get strong.” Furthermore, on pages 140 and 141, Braverman gives Hope a clown nose that helps her stay positive when her mother comes to visit. After all the time Hope spent without her mother, her being there again was very upsetting for Hope. Braverman helped Hope when her mother came and helped her overcome the struggle of her being there so she did not break down. Finally, on pages 171-172 Hope gets over the fact of her not having a father. On these pages G.T. wants to adopt her and Hope shows him the scrapbooks of her life that she wanted to show her father. G.T. being a fatherly figure in Hope’s life helped her defeat the struggle of not having a father. These astounding constants and kind people in Hope’s life helped her banish the cruelties brought upon her by her mother and overcome the absence of her father thus vanquishing these

Being a part of the outdoor world and assisting her father out on the farm was important to her. The girl was pleased when her father complimented her hard work, she “turned away and raked furiously, red in the face with pleasure” (4). Although, whenever the narrator’s mother asked for help she quickly did the task, but she stated, “as soon as I was done I ran out of the house... before my mother thought of what she wanted me to do next” (4). It seems as if she did not want to be like her mother. She viewed her mother as boring, and she did not want to become a modern housewife with little importance to the world. The girl clearly stated “it seemed to me that work in the house was endless, dreary, and peculiarly depressing; work done out of doors, and in my father's service, was ritualistically important” (4). Nevertheless, as the girl aged, her personality towards life began to change. She had been comfortable with the idea of killing animals and found herself watching the process, but later, she matured into a girl who “didn't think of watching it” (9). Without showing regret, the girl seemed to be

“We would have known nothing of the nature and reach of her sorrow if she had come back. But she left us and broke the family and the sorrow was released and we saw its wings and saw it fly a thousand ways into the hills, and sometime I think sorrow is a predatory thing because birds scream at dawn with a marvelous terror and there is, as I said before, a deathly bitterness in the smell of ponds and ditches (198).”

For instance, when she was at home alone, “At home it was different. Those long quiet mornings in the house still gave me pleasure,” but whenever this silence was interrupted, “tension and shame accompanied them” (Grealy 93). Especially when Lucy was around her family because since she wasn’t able to detect what she was unhappy about within the complicated family relationship they shared, she felt that everything started with her and that it was her fault. When Lucy was at the hospital with her father, there was a feeling of a comforting relief every time he left, “I watched his back as he left and felt relief” because when he left, the “embarrassment and awkwardness” (Grealy 85) that Lucy’s father felt, was the same as hers. That relief of being left alone during a difficult time is comforting because it becomes a time that’s just for you and your thoughts. There’s no looks of judgement or pity written across faces, just the comfort of the surroundings around

Aunt Harriet hears about her sister's new baby, and wants to take the baby for a few days, so she can keep the baby and get the certificet. shows her great desperation by forcing these words to her sister. Aunt Harriet does not want her husband to leave her because,

Helen was designed to show the struggles of the many people who lived in such conditions that their greatest wish was to be in heaven. They had abandoned hope of improving their social class and rather sought to remain as faithful as possible. Helen’s quiet, almost angelic, piety was a symbol to those people of strength and sacrifice. Her death especially proved her strength as well as solidifying her connection to Maria. Helen, through the mix of these two things, became a combination of tragedy as well as victory, a memory of her sister and inspiration to all those like

Sally Mann’s style incorporates black and white photographs of her children, which are presented with “ordinary moments of childhood, suspended in time and transformed into aesthetic objects, takes on a distorted, even uncanny quality” (Arnason and Mansfield 719). Sally Mann photographed The New Mothers in 1989. This photograph’s most dominant elements are value and space. Having the photographs black and white really enhances the visibility of values. Most of Mann’s work is outside and has a define depth of field to blur out the background and emphasize the focus of the children. This compositional style helps to identify the high and low key values within the photos. The clothes, the reflection of the sun on the girls’ hair, and the girls fair skin are the part of the image that show high-key values, while the rest of the photo in more middle and low-key values. The intense depth of field increases a feeling of space for the viewer. In the photo you can see that the two young girls and their stroller is all in a line horizontally. Behind the girls you can notice they are outside in a open area because of the blurred grass and trees behind them. This photograph’s most dominant principles are movement and variety. The depth of field and lack of distraction in the background of the photo allows your eye to focus and move around with the subjects in the photo. The height of the subjects forms a triangle shape, which is

Margaret Atwood creates a haunting and beautiful piece describing the experience a sad child goes through. She structures her poem by using five stanzas; two stanzas consisting of five lines, then one stanza with ten lines, and ending with two stanzas consisting of five lines. She uses simple yet powerful diction, tone, metaphors, similes, symbolism, and imagery to show the unknown speaker giving advice to a sad child. Her message/theme is sadness is a part of life and there are different ways to deal with it, but when death comes the thing that one is being sad about doesn’t matter.