Mother-Daughter Conflicts in Modern America: Causes and Solutions

“If I should have a daughter, instead of mom, she's going to call me point B...” (Kay). For most women, motherhood is an achievement that allows mothers to build strong connections with their children. “If I Should Have A Daughter” explains the importance of experiencing life with an open heart and appreciating everything life gives and takes away from you. Sarah Kay describes how she would guide her children throughout life in this manner. Sarah Kay uses rhetorical and literary devices such as ethos, pathos, metaphors and personification to enhance her explanation of motherhood and the complexity of mother-daughter relationships in her poem, “If I Should Have A Daughter”.

NARRATOR: Once upon a time there was a beautiful mother who was recently divorced with 3 daughters, two sweet ones and one rude one. All of her children were from a previous marriage that ended terribly. Two of her daughters Zella and Tasha were perfectly fine with the divorce but Cindy started acting very rebellious. Motherella’s ex-husband treated her terrible but Cindy never thought anything of it. Cindy thought that the divorce was all Motherella’s fault.

“i am a linguist” says Tannen and briefly explains what that means and how it better helps her explore the topic. She lets it be known that in fact she is someone's daughter but does not have one of her own. But because she is well past her adolescent years makes her just as credible if she were to have one. At first it may appear that this piece was written for women and girls who presumably have wondered why their relationship with their mothers or daughters were so complex. On the contrary it grabs the attention of both genders. All though not directly targeted to men and boys it could give them a better insight to the women relationship in their lives. Tannen says “... there is a special intensity to the mother-daughter relationship because talk,particularly talk about personal topics -- plays a larger more complex role in girls’ and women's social lives than in boys and men.” this does not dismiss the male , and Tannen does an acceptable job at engaging both

In many families, the relationship between a mother and her daughter is the closest relationship in the family. The bond a mother and daughter have can be similar to bonds between anyone else in the family, a mother’s and daughter’s relationship is different than anyone else’s in many ways.

Although the differences are numerous mother and daughter reconcile and show how others points of view can enrich your own thinking.

In contrast to the relationships of fathers and sons, mothers and sons have an emotional bonding throughout their lives. Mothers have physical and emotional connections and are always there

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.

When she enters the bedroom, her voice changes from present to past tense and she starts to reminisce and begins to talk about her mother and aunts. She seems happy to remember her mother’s room and introduces her aunts to the audiences. Mary delivers her dialogue saying that the dressing table and the small elephant statue figures are all same. When Mary gently touches her mother’s photo, she delivers a sad tone. Her performance conveys to the audiences that she misses her mother. The tone of her voice represents that she is a gentle, innocent and a loving child. Her verbal and non-verbal interactions conveyed the viewers with a message that she is an orphan.

"You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key? She has lived for nineteen years. Over and over, we are told of the limitations on choice--"it was the only way"; "They persuaded me" and verbs of necessity recur for descriptions of both the mother's and Emily's behavior. " In such statements as "my wisdom ! came too late," the story verges on becoming an analysis of parental guilt. With the narrator, we construct an image of the mother's own development: her difficulties as a young mother alone with her daughter and barely surviving during the early years of the depression; her painful months of enforced separation from her daughter; her gradual and partial relaxation in response to a new husband and a new family as more children follow; her increasingly complex anxieties about her first child; and finally her sense of family balance which surrounds but does not quite include the early memories of herself and Emily in the grips of survival needs. In doing so she has neither trivialized nor romanticized the experience of motherhood; she has indicated the wealth of experience yet to be explored in the story’s possibilities of experiences, like motherhood, which have rarely been granted serious literary consideration. Rather she is searching for

The reader cannot help but feel the burden the daughter will be sharing with the mother. And while the plight of the mother is real, the reader cannot ignore how the isolation and loneliness of this type of community, or lack there of, has effected Tome's judgment in mothering.

Almost every woman in North America has some form of a relationship with their daughter and/or mother in their lifetime. However, these relation can vary in amiability and affection. Whether due to similarities or differences in personality or circumstances in life, mothers and daughters can be close confidants or fierce foes. These familial relationships have been studied in part by Marianne Hirsch and Sharon M. Varallo in their essays on “the familial gaze” and “the genre of family photographs,” respectively. In this essay, I will be using the work previously done by Hirsch and Varallo to analyze two different mother-daughter relationships presented in the television show Gilmore Girls. The two relationships differ vastly in their outward appearance, however both relationships show underlying characteristics of both friendship and animosity. Overall, these two mother-daughter relationships demonstrate that the love between a mother and a daughter can be expressed in various ways.

America’s reports having a good relationship with her parents Patricia and Luis; and that she is closer to her mother then her father. Both parents have been very supportive and caring towards America. It appears that that Patricia and Luis have been honest with Lighting Peak staff and reported when America was suspended from school. While both parents support America it appears that they struggle to enforce rules and consequences and that they are unsure as to how to help America with her current struggles.

“Making excuses was a way daughters sought to understand some of their mothers’ current and past actions, thereby releasing their mother from some of the blame daughters put on them.”

The relationship between mother and daughter has been handled from psychological, social and historical perspectives as well as from a feminist one in many fictions so far. Novels could provide different and interesting examples for evaluating the importance of this relationship in terms of different literary theories with the viewpoints of mother or daughter. The mother was a role model for the daughter and ensured the longest lasting woman relationship that the daughter experienced. When looking at Sylvia Plath’s life and her relationship with her own mother it was clear to see that this relationship played a very significant role in the way that she presented the mother

The topic that I have chosen to discuss throughout this paper is Managing and Resolving Conflicts in a Relationship. This topic is very important to me simply because, I personally see a lot of relationships failing, including some of mines due to lack of resolving and managing conflicts correctly. By the end of this paper I hope that I have helped the reader understand and eliminate any conflicts that confront their everyday lives.