Gwendolyn Brook's The Mother: Conflicted Narration
Joshua Smith
Jane Focht-Hansen
ENGL 2342-002
Sunday, March 02, 2014 New Criticism of “the mother”
“the mother” is a challenging poem to analyze thanks to its highly conflicted narrator. Ostensibly, the narrator starts out purposing to tell her audience about the traumatic experience of having an abortion, while trying to avoid delving into the morality of her choice. However, the poem quickly goes past discussing just the emotional fallout, and the narrator begins to address herself, and finally, her aborted children. The narrator’s indecision leads me to believe she is actually an unreliable narrator, as she argues with herself. At no point does the poem attempt to make a broader statement about the morality of abortion, but the within the narrator’s world, she struggles to explain to herself how the potential inherent in a fetus can be prevented, and yet the preventer not be guilty for precluding that life from enjoying existence. Inasmuch as the poem avoids making any kind of universal claim, “the mother” is carefully constructed to show the narrator’s unsuccessful attempt to convince herself (and the reader) of her innocence. According to PsychCentral, a social network on the internet devoted to mental health, most women who have abortions suffer from negative, long-term emotions such as depression, sadness, and sometimes anger. It is apparent that the narrator in “the mother” is suffering from some of these feelings too, and wants to shut down and rationalize her choices. She begins strongly, describing the fetuses as “damp, small pulps with a little or with no hair” (Brooks, 71), very distant, clinical terms, perhaps even the way they were described to her. This terminology dehumanizes, helping the narrator emotionally distance herself. However, every description used thereafter is intensely human and personal. The narrator also, in a number of places, expresses that she does not fully understand what she did, or what the abortions really
Jane Focht-Hansen
ENGL 2342-002
Sunday, March 02, 2014 New Criticism of “the mother”
“the mother” is a challenging poem to analyze thanks to its highly conflicted narrator. Ostensibly, the narrator starts out purposing to tell her audience about the traumatic experience of having an abortion, while trying to avoid delving into the morality of her choice. However, the poem quickly goes past discussing just the emotional fallout, and the narrator begins to address herself, and finally, her aborted children. The narrator’s indecision leads me to believe she is actually an unreliable narrator, as she argues with herself. At no point does the poem attempt to make a broader statement about the morality of abortion, but the within the narrator’s world, she struggles to explain to herself how the potential inherent in a fetus can be prevented, and yet the preventer not be guilty for precluding that life from enjoying existence. Inasmuch as the poem avoids making any kind of universal claim, “the mother” is carefully constructed to show the narrator’s unsuccessful attempt to convince herself (and the reader) of her innocence. According to PsychCentral, a social network on the internet devoted to mental health, most women who have abortions suffer from negative, long-term emotions such as depression, sadness, and sometimes anger. It is apparent that the narrator in “the mother” is suffering from some of these feelings too, and wants to shut down and rationalize her choices. She begins strongly, describing the fetuses as “damp, small pulps with a little or with no hair” (Brooks, 71), very distant, clinical terms, perhaps even the way they were described to her. This terminology dehumanizes, helping the narrator emotionally distance herself. However, every description used thereafter is intensely human and personal. The narrator also, in a number of places, expresses that she does not fully understand what she did, or what the abortions really
Bibliography: 1. Reardon, David C. "Forced Abortion in America." The Post-Abortion Review 12.3 (2004): n.pag. Theunchoice.com. Web. 2 Mar. 2014. . 2. Johnson, Trudy M. "Understanding Abortion Grief and the Recovery Process | Psych Central." Psych Central.com. N.p., 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 2 Mar. 2014. . 3. Lynn, Steven. "Chapter 5 / Read Poetry Closely: New Criticism." 2004. Literature: Reading and Writing with Critical Strategies. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004. 71-72. Print.