Wednesday, November 2, 2011

A Mother's Love


              There is a scene in Autumn, from Toni Morrison’s book The Bluest Eye, which reminds me of my childhood. On page 11, Claudia throws up and her mother says “What did you puke on the bed clothes for? Don’t you have sense enough to hold your head out the bed? Now, look what you did. You think I got time for nothing but washing up your puke?” This section shows her mother’s struggle with showing her love for her daughter. Yet she is still taking care of her because this love is still there, even though it isn’t there in necessarily the nicest of ways.
                When I was younger, and even now that I don’t live at home, my mom has never been the nicest about different aspects of my life. “Oh, you want to go to that school? What happened to this one?” “You look like you need to go to the gym. You don’t want to end up like your sister.” “You only threw up a little bit, go to school.” And other, very inspirational, conversations have occurred. If I call my mom on the phone, she yells at me. After talking to my dad about this he said, “She doesn’t want you to feel different just because you don’t live at home”. As much as I appreciate nothing changing (I no longer have a bed at home though, so everything didn’t stay the same), it still hurts a little when she attacks me with her yelling. Although it may hurt a little, I know it’s her way of showing she loves me.
                When Claudia’s mom is yelling at her for throwing up, she doesn’t mean it. Her mom is frustrated and is voicing these feelings out loud; something that Claudia doesn’t realize until she’s older. I can identify with this because my mom does the same thing. When she’s had a bad day at work, she comes home and nitpicks our lives; not because she really means it but instead she wants the best for us so we don’t have to go through what she does.
Claudia’s mother and my mother are similar in that they both don’t show their love in the most conventional of ways. Obviously this doesn’t mean that the love isn’t there. Claudia’s mother never made her live outdoors like Mr. Breedlove did to his family. She didn’t believe them when Pecola got her period because she didn’t want her kids to behave badly and not get punished for it. She wants her kids to become the best they can be. When Claudia was sick, it was taking away from time her mother could be putting into other things that help put food on the table. My mother is the same way, she allows me to go to a great college and even though it isn’t the most affordable of schools, we’re making do because it’s allowing me to be the best person I can be.
Maybe our mother’s don’t show their love like other mother’s do. Maybe our mother’s don’t ask if we’re okay and if we need to stay home. Maybe our mother’s get frustrated and complain about us. This doesn’t mean the love isn’t there.  

1 comment:

  1. Dana, I'm glad that you referred to Claudia's mother in this way, it's an interesting perspective. Claudia's mother is stressed out trying to care and provide for her own family without the addition of Pecola. So when Pecola comes it makes it that much more difficult. Maybe she doesn't always treat her children like children, but she still cares for them. She may have been frustrated with Claudia for puking, but she still cleaned it up. She may have been upset because she thought her kids were doing something bad, but she still took care of Pecola and helped her through her first period. I don't think that the positive side of Claudia's mom would have occurred to me if you hadn't said anything.

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