Thursday, January 21, 2010

SSRJ#1 Godwin

SSRJ#1

The first paragraph of this piece made my stomach turn. How could a mother not want to ever see her family again? Over and over again the mother refused to be a mother to her three year old son. It appeared the husband understood her sickness and was doing his best to ride it out. The interesting element to me was the sickness. I kept waiting to hear what it was. Was it physical, psychological or both.

The woman seemed distressed throughout the entire story. She might of been tired of being a mother and the daily grind of what it entailed. I believe at one point the husband said to the boy, " she needs a break from us".

The author used atmosphere to achieve this setting through the woman's eye's that set the tone for the entire story.

At the end, did the woman simply fall asleep or fall asleep forever?

4 comments:

  1. Hi Charles, nice to meet you. At the end I think the woman possibly committed suicide because it sounded like she prepared all the food and did a lot of things around house knowing that this was going to be the last time she had to do this. I don't understand her thinking in regards to her family. I realize she is depressed, but as a mother I don't understand.

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  2. Hi Charles, great post. I wrote almost the same exact thing. It is kind of hard to imagine a mother that not only doesnt want to be a mother, but also doesnt want to see her own child. Your question was also very close to mine. I came to the conclusion that when the father picks up the mothers wrist he is checking her vitals, I just didnt know if she meant to die or if she was sick.

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  3. Hi Charles,
    I was thinking the same thing while reading this piece. It was sad to see a mother just give up on her family the way she did. I came to the conclusion at the end that she had passed away. It seemed like the things she did early to prepare for the husband and child's return home was one last effort at being the mom/wife that she should've been for her family.

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  4. Good read. I don't think I could have written this story. I just can't put myself in the mind of someone who has given up as the woman in this story has.

    One has to wonder what the father intended when he started to mix up the "sleeping draught" in week-size batches. Having recently been contacted by someone who threatened suicide by overdose, it seems insane to leave the means for a depressed person to kill themselves in a kitchen cabinet. When she finished all the work she meant to do and then "took what was hers," it seems clear that she intended this to be her final sleep.

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