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'Shopping' Joyce Carol Oates

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Analysis A relationship between a mother and daughter may not be perfect at all times. There are many things that can make the job of being a mother tough and one of them is being a single mother. In the short story, “Shopping” by Joyce Carol Oates there is no exception to modern day hardships that come along the road of motherhood. The turbulence in Nola and Mrs. Dietrich relationship is shown during their shopping trip to the mall where Nola hardly speaks to her mother. Mrs. Dietrich refuses to let go of the child inside Nola. Nola was once an awkward girl, overweight, unhappy. She was prone to sharing her random knowledge when she was younger, much to the disappointment of her parents. “When they were alone Mr. Dietrich …show more content…

It is expressed: "She knows no more of how love ends than she knew as a child, she knows only of how love begins, in the belly, in the womb, where it is always present tense." (Oates 281.) After a strained morning of shopping, during a silent lunch, Dietrich begins to reflect on her obsession with her daughter in a sense, analyzing who her daughter has become. Nola has once again

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