Absence Of A Mother's Nurture In 'Filling Station'

Absence of a Mothers Nurture Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Filling Station” uses the central symbol of grease and things covered in grime as a way to describe a filthy gas station in a remote place run by men, and mocks the black and messy appearance of the filling station by giving everything a shiny oil finish, but surprisingly she finds signs of order within its filth and disorder. She wonders who provides the order or domestic touches in the station because there isn’t a motherly touch in the station other than the small speck of order she does find. Considering everything is covered in grease suggest that there isn’t a mother figure to follow behind to make sure everything is clean and tidy. The poem uses filth and grim not only to describe everything in and around the families’ station suggesting that there isn’t any cleaning or self-worth going into the store or the people working there by saying, “Father wears a dirty old soaked monkey suit that cuts him off at the arms” implies that the father hasn’t washed his work suit and that he has suit has shrunk because he has worn it for such a long
Also the “doily” “embroidered in daisy stich” and the “big hirsute begonia” suggest that there was a motherly figure at a point but she has vanishes or left recently, and without her present there is little to no structure in the family filling station. She notices that the plant and the wicker furniture and the patio really don’t belong at such a greasy place and she comes to a slight conclusion that this oily, dirty man wouldn’t have a pink flower or a daisy covered doily just laying around, so there has to be someone to keep up the little bit of order like watering the plant of organizing the oil cans or even making the pretty daisy