Motherly Love Essays -- essays research papers

Motherly Love   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the three stories we read by Flannery O’Connor; â€Å"The Comforts of Home†, â€Å"Everything That Rises Must Converge†, and â€Å"The Enduring Chill†, the major relationship portrayed was between mothers and their hypersensitive sons. While all of the major characters, the sons, were noticeably similar, the lesser characters of the mothers were also very alike in many ways. Many of their views, gestures and outward qualities paralleled throughout the stories. After rereading all of the stories again I came to the realization that the mothers O’Connor wrote in her stories were variations of the same person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the qualities that jump out first is that all three mothers are incredibly proud of their sons, even if they have no reason to be. Julian’s mother loves to tell people how her â€Å"son finished college last year. He wants to write but he’s selling typewriters until he gets started† (10). She does not care that he has not truly written anything, but that he has graduated college and that he is trying to get his life on track. She is constantly reminding him that â€Å"Rome wasn’t built in a day† (11), and she truly believes this about her son; that eventually he will go places with his writing. Mrs. Fox, Asbury’s mother, while not particularly glad that he is a writer, is proud that he is an artist and has every faith that her son â€Å"might be writing a long book† (90). While not as vocal about how she is proud of her son, she is happy that he is doing what he wants; writing. Thomas’ mother was often found boasting about her son to Star Drake. In the two’s first meeting, Thomas’ mother tells Star that â€Å"Thomas writes history†¦ He’s the president of the local Historical Society this year† (123). This statement alone proves that she is impressed by what her son does and what he has become in his life, otherwise I doubt his mother would have mentioned it. A lot of the pride these mothers have in their son’s may be due to the fact that, except in the case of Asbury, they are only children to single mothers. Since they are all portrayed as older women, of course they will have pride in what their sons do, since they have little in their lives to boast about. Yet, it seems to me that these mothers feel their sons can do no wrong in life, which may be a cause of why their sons tend to walk all over them. &nb... ...l are single and assumed to be widowed. O’Connor uses the blue eyes to further connect these background characters who have more in common then what initially meets the eye.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the three stories by Flannery O’Connor that we read for class, the mothers played more important roles then initially thought. They help to shape the story and their sons. Each of them has their own individual qualities, but is very similar to the others. They are all proud of their sons and their achievements, even though these boys feel that they are lacking in one-way or another, are very innocent in all that they do and think, and have many similar outward qualities. These factors put together lead me to believe that O’Connor had the same person in mind when writing each of these stories. Maybe she used different aspects of the same person, but it would be hard for me to believe that more then one person was in mind when writing these stories. The same innocent, heart-driven, blue-eyed mother was depicted in all three stories, just in slightly different situations. In summary, O’Connor had the same person in mind when writing about the mother in all three of these stories.