The Good Mother †A Passive Life :: Good Mother

The Good Mother A Passive sustenance We live in a world...where the decisive deed may charm the holocaust. --John Updike An interesting question that emerges while reading The Good Mother is wherefore did Anna allow it happen? Of course, this question must be included among many a(prenominal) others, most of which elicit ambiguous answers What really happened? Was there fault to be assigned? If so, who was at fault? What is a good mother? basin a woman be a good lover and a good mother? Where must cozy boundaries be drawn amongst children and couples in a household? Regardless of what it is, the answer to the question why did Anna let it happen is that she was rendered almost powerless by her gender, class, and social and family background knowledge to do anything but let it happen. She spent her animateness letting things happen. Anna Dunlap, tardily freed from a boring marriage and involved in a sexual awakening with an unconventional man, probably thought of hersel f as liberated in a very literal way before and during her affair with king of beasts Cutter. I had a sense, a drunken irresponsible sense, of being approximately to begin my life, of moving beyond the claims of my own family, of Brian, into a passionate experiment, a claim on myself. (p. 10) As events played out, however, it became obvious that Anna had not fly her history and that her liberation was just an illusion. Anna grew up in the shadow of her wealthy, arrogant grandfather, her emotionally absent father and her cold, achievement-oriented mother. Her mother ran her life, pushing Anna to practice delicate in the hopes she would become a professional musician one day. Anna was instruction that she was not in control of her life she was forced to let life ( through her mothers ambitions for her) happen to her. When she visited her grandparents summer home in Maine, Anna witnessed her grandfathers overwhelming dominance and axiom her grandmother, mother and aunts engaged in interesting but meaningless (in Annas view) womens conversations. When Anna was fourteen, her mother, realizing Anna was not a musical genius, loosened her grip on her daughter and, in fact, ceased to praise her for anything. As Annas body changed and she became attractive to boys, she tried to define herself through sex, which she found empty and unsatisfying. Once again, Anna was not in control she let it happen.