The Migrant Mother By Dorothea Lange

The aim of this present paper is to give a detailed analysis of the psychological indication of a human mind before being a mother after pregnancy. The name Sylvia Plath, an American confessional poet, itself is the matter of great psycho as it has been discussed a lot since the past few decades. With this two poems foreshadowing the cult of the deep psychology of a girl before having a sense of motherhood completely, Plath exaggerates the notion of the strong sense of motherhood as well as her own feeling over the unborn being growing up gradually in herself. A deep psychology and strong sense of motherhood completely grasps over her brain made her able to pen the theme of her strong feeling over the unborn. And this kind of physical as well

You Have Seen Their Faces by Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell is a photo documentary of life in the South during the Great Depression. After reading You Have Seen Their Faces along with critiques of it by Rabinowitz and Snyder, I found myself more interested in the topic of how motherhood was depicted in the book. Rabinowitz brought up that middle class women felt the need to regulate the poor women because they weren 't feminine enough or motherly enough which is the main attitude involved in slumming. By observing Margaret Bourke-White’s photos I found two distinct classes of these types of images: positive and negative. I was curious as to the deeper meanings behind these two classes of photos and what this meant about Bourke-White’s perspective of her subjects. Another point of interest is how and if the captions of these photos of mothers cause the images to be interpreted differently.

Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” depicts one of hundreds of similar cases of impoverished people during the Dustbowl that ravaged the American Midwest in the 1930’s. It was pictures like this one, windows into the souls of the disheartened and discarded, that brought about awareness and reform that eventually ended the Great Depression. Uniting one nation, this picture, and others like it, connects Americans to one another- not individuals, but one and indivisible. The photograph’s composition, narrative, and themes contribute to its purpose as a work of political protest as the mother represents a declining nation in dire need of change.

This book outlined the gender inequality and oppression of women that persisted in America. It addressed the trends in the 1950s and 60s where the age of women marrying was decreasing, while birth rate was increasing. 1950s American culture reinforced the idea that homemaking would mean fulfillment and happiness as an American woman, but Friedan noticed the exact opposite. Friend pointed out that these limiting expectations for women actually lead to depression and a sense of bereft. She encouraged women to fight off these feelings by finding fulfillment and meaning outside and alongside marriage and motherhood.

For centuries women have been overlooked by their male counterparts in society. They have been ignored, mistreated, and treated as second-class citizens by society. It seems to be never-ending, as women oppressed in their everyday lives in their homes, at work, and everywhere else in the world. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the wallpaper symbolically represents the oppression of women in society as it demonstrates its inescapability, its unsightliness, and the normalization of it.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short piece, The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator faces many adversities as a woman such as: mental health, and living in a time period when they are not treated equal to men. Gilman’s personal life is reflected through this story because she dealt with similar challenges the narrator herself has to overcome. “Her lectures, novels, short stories, magazine articles (including her best known work, “The Yellow Wallpaper”), and nonfiction books challenged the dominant ideas about women’s role in society and helped shape the movement for women’s suffrage and women’s rights. (Dreier, 2016)” The theme and symbols not only illustrate how the roles of men and women are portrayed unequal to one another, but also the transition to insanity that comes from enforced suppression. The state of ignorance placed on women is shown throughout the story by the obstacles, reactions, and mental state.

The purpose of this argumentative paper is the feminism that occurred in the early 1900s. “Now We Can Begin” written and compiled as a speech by Crystal Eastman in the United States during the 19th amendment about the inequality experienced in the society with women having limited rights and unequal treatment (Eastman). Women during that time would stay at home and watch over their children while they husbands would be the bread winners of the family. When Crystal Eastman wrote the speech in the 20’s, the roles played by each gender had begun to disappear as women were pursuing careers and leaving their homes to indulge in other outside activities. She wrote ab0out the plight of women and the challenging norms of gender experienced

Women of early to mid 1900’s were oppressed by the man’s perfect view of what a woman should and should not be. Hastily after they were given the right to vote in 1920, men pressured women to stay in the realm of expertise they had already participated in for centuries, domesticity. Sylvia Plath the writer of, The Bell Jar, uses the life of Esther Greenwood to show how cultural views of women disabled women from reaching their highest abilities. Women who sought a higher education or an occupation above the norm were pitied in society, looked down on for not conforming to the American dream of the “suburb housewife” (Friedan,60). Women of higher positions were judged by their looks instead of the qualifications. Life for women was particularly hard in the 1950’s, many women would go about their day drugged with uppers and plaster the fake smiles on their faces just to be favored in society; but the mundanity of daily life dragged on and many women found no challenge or enjoyment in their tasks (Friedan, 62). Men used the pressures of society to oppress women in conforming with the ideal housewife, instead of joining the workforce and creating their own destiny -like the women before they had fought for- they applied themselves to an image created for them by “God” and by “man”.

Her photo Migrant Mother was able to bring more awareness to the political agends predominant due to the New Deal. The photographs she took for the Resettlement Administration were to mark the way the viewers would consider social and political aspects of the photographs through their specific aesthetic qualities (Kozol, 2005, p. 240). They gave the very specific qualities that guide them to support causes relevant within the nation. She was able to communicate to her audience through the detailed elements within her photograph that highlight the struggles predominant in migrant workers. While adding captions to guide her audience into interpreting the images in their intended format.

The migrant mother was taken during the great depression. The picture is of a mother with her two children. The photograph is black and white, reminisce of the time. The mother is not looking at the camera, she is staring off into the distant. The look on her face is one of longing, and hopefully. In the picture, you can tell the years have not been kind to her, her two children look young yet she looks as

“Like all social masks, the mask of motherhood is an invaluable means for organizing and domesticating the more rapacious aspects of the realities we confront.” (Maushart, 2007, 460). Women hold onto the secrecy of how they feel and are questionable of what they know. The mask of motherhood is seen with complacent of mothers in the work force and stay at home mothers who look at each other with arrogance and distaste, the worries that new mother have, and images of supermoms. The realities of being a mother are silenced and the mask keeps us mute about our knowledge and what we know to the point where we don't remember what we actually know. Maushart states in the reading that “We diminish our knowledge, our power, our spirit as women. Ultimately, we no longer make a life — we fake a life.”(Maushart, 2007, 463). When she talked about faking a life instead of making a life, it really gave a better understanding on the mask of motherhood. Women mask how motherhood really is and it gives a false perception on how being a mother is really like. Susan Maushart starts her final paragraph with what it means to unmask motherhood and it would face the sober reality that real life is not temporarily elsewhere and it is about accepting that everyone makes it up as we go along through life and we all wish that we knew more. The novel I Don’t Know How She Does It shows the

Dorothea Lange creates a work of art using her camera. This black and white photograph from the depression era portrays the struggle of motherhood while in a destitute state. This photograph would be much different if the value was altered. Using black and white with the photograph represents the depression that overcame society at this time. The intensity the photographer reveals would alter if the photo was in color. The focal point is the women’s hand on the lower corner of her face as she stares off in the distance. One could hypothesize the photographer’s immediate image following this one could be that of the woman’s hand on her forehead; suggesting the illusion of motion and time within this frame. The rough premature wrinkles on the

The theme of the story is A mothers reflection of responsibility and regret in her life; she recognizes the compelling situation of poverty and the severe condition that she was forced to accept as a young single mother. The characterization and setting brought out the elements of the story.

Dorothea Lange was a photographer that was taking a report for the U.S. Farm Security Administration in hopes to show the awful living conditions of displaced farmers that are migrating to Western states. She took this photo for many reasons, but her main purpose is to attempt to present the idea that some aren’t as lucky as others, and that is when a community or nation need to come together to see the holistic problems. She wants to make people ask questions and let their sympathetic emotions create a force that will hopefully solve these problems. Also, she wanted the government and banks see where they put people and what they are putting children through. This might help start a movement within these powers to help the unfortunate and poverty-stricken

because [she] felt [her] own needs acutely and often expressed them violently (32) by raging at her children out of frustration, provides a credible offering to break down an institution that makes women like her angry. It also demonstrates some of the ways in which motherhood has not been women's choice.