The Mother

I had to read Lynn's criticism of the short story, The Mother. I like when Lynn explains to us what he thinks new criticism is, and that we should only use and examine the words the author has written, instead of the author’s background, time period, or reasons for writing what he or she did.

I like the way he goes through line by line, and takes notes, calculating what it means and how some lines contradict others. I liked how he set up the guidelines for shaping our essays, brainstorming ideas to write about, and drafting your critique of someone’s writing.

When he writes, “It [abortions] can’t make “you” remember or keep “you” from forgetting” in note A, the critic seems to believe that the mother is haunted by her decisions. I also agree with the critic, when he wonders “if your child is not living, is that person still considered a mother?” I like how he wants us to look at the intent of the characters and what is important about what they are telling us.

Like the critic, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was little confused by the line “you got that you did not get.” He writes “Either you got them or you didn’t, it would seem.” It got me thinking of what that sentence means and I think it means that speaker has hope for the children who she aborted, and hopes they got a second chance at a new life somewhere else.

The critic asks us to examine why the poem is called a certain title, like this one is called “The Mother,” even if it is about her abortions. My initial response was that the author wants us to believe she is the Mother of guilt or regrets, but now reading through this critique, one reason for the title being “The Mother” is to refer to her being the mother and letting the readers to know it was a female telling the story, and not the father.

I like when he wrote, “It’s fine if your ideas aren’t similar to those above. In fact, it’s great because I would certainly be bored if everyone thought the same things.” Anybody who critiques a poem isn’t going to have the same set of notes. People think of different things when they read something, and none of the thoughts we have are good or bad, they are just unique.

I thought it was interesting when he asks us to think, “What holds it together?” referring to the poem. He basically says to examine the work and it is okay to ask questions. I like how he sets up a basic formula when drafting your essay from your notes, and the notes in the margin.

Like the critic, I also thought the mother was dividing herself in half, “as a murderer and a murder.” I agree when reading poems we need to develop a theory and a thesis of what we think the poems means, and give several reasons why we think what we think about it.

Usually when I write a paper on someone’s writing, I try to be objective in my response and look at both sides of the equation. I think with this certain poem, if you’re Pro-Life, you should look at it like someone who is Pro-Choice, and vice versa. I think when critiquing, you need to develop a different feels for the writing from all of the issues. I feel like the author of this critique did the same. I feel like the critic also didn’t put a personal stance of the mother’s decisions. I think you have to remain neutral and look at both sides of the issue like he did.

In conclusion, I think this critique of “The Mother” will be very helpful to me when I do the other assignments on other poems, because he set up a formula to follow. There wasn’t much I didn’t like about his critique, besides some of his notes that I commented on above. He did give reasons for why he wrote what he did that I didn’t agree with, and made me think more about the concepts with a different perspective.