In the short story Love, Your Only Mother, by David Michael Kaplan, there is an evident theme of the importance of love between and a child and a parent. This story is representing the necessary relationship between a daughter and her mother, no matter what individual problems they each have encountered throughout their lives. Since the daughter is talking directly to her mother, she is telling her exact emotions and how she has felt throughout her life.
The daughter has contradictory emotions throughout the story. “The postcard was Nebraska, and there’s no Ferndale in Nebraska. In the card before that, you said you were making me a birthday cake that you’d send. Even though I vowed I’d never do it again, I try to understand what you are telling me (p 314).” This illustrates that she is angry with her mother for lying to her all the time in the postcards. She doesn’t understand why her mother is telling her things in the postcards, that later she discovers are not true. It seems that she wants to give up but she can’t because of the love for her mother. “Sometimes I decided you were dead, even wished you were dead, but then another postcard would come, with another message to ponder (p 314).” The daughter can not just throw out the postcard without reading it, because no matter what, she is going to be interested in what her mother has to tell her, and she always has a deep inside feeling that maybe her mother will come back. A relationship between a child and a parent will always exist. There is a fight for love among some people because throughout their lives they have struggled to maintain that relationship. Even if a parent has left the child when they were young, the child may want to be angry, but still would give anything for their mother or father, because there is that natural strive for love and support.
The Homework on A Mothers Love
I knew early on that my life was not to follow the gentle streams and brooks of my choosing, yet was to go raging down the rivers of its own. I did not realize however, there was always to be a clearing in the turbulent waters, a hand extended to pull me out. Always reaching out, again and again I would grasp that same gentle hand that had pulled me up many a time before. I quickly came to see ...
In the story, the imagery that the daughter describes is very descriptive. “But on summer evenings, when the windows are open to dusk, I sometimes smell cities…wheat fields…oceans-strange smells from far away-all the places you’ve been that I never will (p 315).” The daughter is angry again here, she realizes that the mother has moved on physically without her, and tries to imagine all the time where her mother is. She will picture her mother in the postcard. Most likely what she looks like, and where she is. This is again because of that attempt of a child to picture life with a parent that they have been without. After all the years the girl was receiving the postcards, she still looked up every place on the map that the mother claimed to be, even if she knew she wasn’t really there. The daughter understands that the mother left because of her own problems, and not because of her, otherwise she wouldn’t keep telling herself she might come back.
“Well, at least you know she’s still alive, he says (p 313).” It is apparent that the husband in the story is not happy with the way the mother has abandoned her daughter. His comment seems to be very sarcastic. His feelings about the mother are very different than the daughters because it is not his own mother. He is not writing or talking to his own mother, so he is more angry and unforgiving than the girl is. This is a clear explanation of why the daughter never gives up. It is her own mother, her own blood. No matter what she will always carry her mother with her.
In the middle of the story, the daughter contradicts her anger towards her mother when she says, “You pursued me, and no matter how far away, you always found me. In your way, I guess, you’ve been faithful (p 314).” It shows that the daughter is somewhat amazed that no matter where she ventured in life, her mother still cared enough to send her the postcards. It seems to give the girl faith that her mother does love her and care about her. She describes her mom as being faithful to her, which explains that since the postcards are all they have between them, faithful would be continuing to send them. Even though in a couple points the daughter tries to say that she might not want a postcard to come anymore, this is not true. Since it is that love and family emotion that a child will always have, the daughter would be even more upset if the postcards stopped coming, she would just not admit that because of her anger.
The Essay on Mother-Daughter Relationships in Short Stories
There are three mother-daughter relationships found within the stories “Snapshot: Lost Lives of Women” by Amy Tan, and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. In “Everyday Use” there are two. The first relationship is between the timid Maggie and her passive mother. The second mother-daughter relationship is between her pushy sister and their mother. The third relationship is in “Snapshot: Lost Lives of ...
The ending is very significant in this story. The fact that the daughter has difficulty sleeping at night, and suddenly believes that her mother is present, is a strong reaction of the trauma of her mother leaving. Even though her husband tells her over and over again that her mother is not here and never will be here, it is true that the girl will never accept that. She still knows her mother. It’s not as if she hasn’t spoken to her in all the years. That relationship, even if it is somewhat destroyed, will always remain. The girl proves this at the very end when she states, “…except you are, my strange and only mother: like a buoy in a fog, your voice, dear Mother, seems to come from everywhere (p 315).” The way she uses the example of a buoy in a fog displays that she might not understand her mother, she might not be clear, but she will always be there. The phrase, “my only mother” is significant because every child only has one real mother, and nothing will replace that relationship no matter what.
In the end, nothing can come between a child and their parent. No matter whose fault it is for the broken ties in the relationship, the strong love and desire to hold together will always remain.
