The aspect of “Mothers” that interested me the most was how this woman ended up taking care of a child. It begins with the narrator’s abusive girlfriend presenting her with a baby. Throughout reading this, I almost suspected a couple of times that the child was imagined in order for the narrator to find her way through an abusive relationship. However, I don’t think the child was imagined, now that I have read the entire thing. The child, I think, becomes a symbol of what she needs in life. She needs good and kind, rather than harsh and aggressive. She imagines this child growing up and experiencing life in the way that she hasn’t due to her relationship. This is a rather heartbreaking realization for her and she imagines and eventually breaks up with Bad. As the story progresses, we can see how the narrator feels lonely. The child becomes a way for the narrator to break those bonds between her and her ex-lover.
Desire is another thing I witnessed as I was reading. The narrator desires to be loved and touched, but competes with the aggression she must experience. I also see bits of where the narrator is learning to care for the child that she becomes fixated with how fragile she is. She realizes that the roughness she encounters on a daily basis is not something she can transfer onto the child and leaves. Something I couldn’t understand was why Bad casually presented the narrator with her baby. Did she know that the narrator would benefit from the child? Could she sense that the narrator desired something more? Of course, this also bought up more red flags as far as the character development of Bad. Overall, the narrator’s desire is ultimately what saves her.
Ashleigh: You write that “the narrator’s desire is ultimately what saves her.” How has she been saved by the story’s end? I’m not sure my reading of this story is quite so optimistic.