I have done a closer reading of the poem “The Mother” by
Gwendolyn Brooks. The first sentence is striking to me “Abortions will not let
you forget”. This statement I think will
help me develop my thesis. Abortion is a word that is so emotionally charged
for many people. The second line also
makes the reader recall that “You remember the children you got but didn’t
get. Brook’s use of got and get are paradoxical,
one being in present tense and the other in past tense. The reader is taken on
a journey of lament and retrospect.
Brooks describes the fetus as a pulpy thing but she cannot let the
reader forget the potential of the lives she destroyed. Did the mother in this poem have
choices? Were the choices of necessitate
or convenience? She writes “Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not
deliberate.” Does she have other children?
Why did she abort her child? Can
she live with her choices? She refers to
her babies as dim. Was this because they never saw the light of day? The last
line of the poem “All” Is Brooks crying out to all mothers that have aborted
their children?
You ask some interesting questions but I'm wondering what you're going to focus on for your paper. It's an interesting point you make about the use of "dim", I'd definitely bring up more interesting word usage like that
ReplyDelete