... a African American slave family. The dominant family structure in a African American slave family was a matriarchal family. A matriarchal family is; authority held by the eldest female, usually the mother. A matriarchal family usually occurs when men aren't present. In most cases in a African American slave family men were hardly present. The matriarchal form of family was clearly present in the ... on their children. African American slave women had a very special and intact relationship with their children. White goes into great detail explaining the relationship between a African Ame...

• Word Count: 1114
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... her blood pressure. She insists that her son Julian, a quasi-intellectual, educated at "only a third-rate college", hypocritically consumed with disdain for his mother's racial bigotry, escort her to the Y on the recently integrated city bus after the Supreme Court ruling in December of 1956 to desegregate the buses of ... Montgomery, Alabama (Alabama Department of Archives and History 1). Julian's self-righteous egotism is changed into childish panic when his mother experiences a fatal stroke after being hit by a black woman whom she has insulted out of her misunderstood mixture of sent...

• Word Count: 806
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and togetherness. A person's family is usually the point of origin to who we become and what we accomplish. Antislavery writers used the displacement of mother from son, sister from brother and wife from husband to show the pain slaves endured when their family members were taken and sold as a moments ... this young boy was alone is the world of slavery. Unlike Equiano, Frederick Douglass didn't have eleven years with his mother. Soon after his birth he was separated from his mother. In the first chapter of his narrative, Douglass talks about the separation of mothers from their childre...

• Word Count: 942
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Miller 63). Since they had no children, most of their kindness and love was directed towards the slaves. This is the motivation as to why Florens' mother was willing to let Florens go to the Vaarks, because Florens would not be taken advantaged in the way she would at the D'Oretega household. When the ... most powerful demonstration of love in the story, because Florens is not aware of it. The end of the novel is a first-person narrative from Florens' mother, explaining why she had to let Florens go. When she saw Jacob, she "saw the tall man see you as a human child, not pieces ... the o...

• Word Count: 1190
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and position in the United States as a slave. Harper visually captures the effects of slavery on African-American women in her work titled The Slave Mother. In this piece, Harper delves into the emotional and mental state of a woman subject to slavery. Her strategy is to use highly emotional terms ... used is "circling". This expression is used to create a sense of wholeness, allowing the reader to feel the completeness that the mother and child shared. The final term in the first phrase is "arms". This term is used to convey to the reader that the wholeness felt ... used as the next ...

• Word Count: 674
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the south before the civil war. She lived on a plantation owned by her grandfather, which had about 200 slaves on it. Julian seems absolutely disgusted with his mother , especially in the beginning of the story. Everything she liked seems to depress him. She was unsure if she liked a hat that she had previously bought, ... but as soon as she decided she didn't like it Julian insisted that she wore it. Slater 2 Some thoughts Julian had throughout the story about his mother were harsh and surprising to be coming from her son. For instance, at one point the looked her as if she ceased to ex...

• Word Count: 538
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... the social classes (The black and slave). However, the boy becomes to get the equality in the future life and the vision of love through his mother's teachings. Finally, he overcomes the inequality in this world with his pure eyes. I read this poem again and again with the critical mind. I have some ... questions about the mother's teaching. Why do not mother explain the inequality in real world? Why does the mother try to relieve the current pain of the boy simply with the vision of equal life in the future world? The ... has a racial prejudice, because he says that my soul is white'...

• Word Count: 481
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Linda lived by before she sacrificed in hopes that she would be freed. Oppositely to Brent, Douglass did not have a relationship with his mother and her absence shaped him into the man he would later become. Although these motherly figures are not always present in the protagonist's life, ... how far it will push someone. Without these morals, we would not have known the significance of Brent's decision. Douglass's relationship with his mother, Harriet Bailey, was practically nonexistent. They were severed from each other very early in his life and met only a handful of times before ......

• Word Count: 754
• Approx Pages: 3

... their courageous attempts to retain human qualities within a system that considered them chattel property. One of the first and most extreme examples of resistance were suicides committed by the narrator's mother and grandmother. These women were not only required to perform physical labor during the day, but were systematically raped by the owner of the plantation, during the evening. The children ... , the relationships between slaves and slave owners had formal and informal boundaries. Forced sex with the master of the plantation apparently was within the boundary of slave relations f...

• Word Count: 1020
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography

... doesn't mean just love and care for your children, it has other meanings as well. It is impossible to describe what a child means to its mother. Motherhood is something that's natural it comes without saying. Motherhood isn't taught it just flows. Sethe lived a life of distorted motherhood, devoid of ... Denver had not been able to experience womanhood or motherhood because she was gripped with the fear that something outside the yard would cause her mother to kill again. This illustrates the diabolical nature of slavery and its perversion of motherhood: because of Sethe's experiences wi...

• Word Count: 1093
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Eliza and she influences her husband to help Eliza escape. The matriarch role of Rachel Halliday is yet another example of the power of the mother as she cared for Eliza and her son, and harbored them from the slave hunters. These women are trying to end slavery and preserve their ... Eliza to do the same. Stowe delivers a powerful anti-slavery message by focusing on the relationship between mother and child. When describing Eliza's sleeping son, Harry, Stowe's reader becomes appalled that the sacred bond between mother and son could be broken, and that a precious child witha smile sprea...

• Word Count: 425
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... . The soil is actually difficult to seed and the soil washes away in the winter. We are promptly introduced to a young Nel Wright. Her mother is very conventional and proper; she is a regular church attendee and is well respected by the community. Nel's family life is very stable. This ... is in stark contrast to Sula Peace's upbringing. While she's young, Sula lives with her mother and her grandmother. Both these woman are seen as being "loose- in the community due to various affairs they have with different men. They frequently ... Chicken's body is found later that afternoon by a bar...

• Word Count: 1171
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... knowledge that they can actually succeed in life. Girls in China were thought to have little significance or personal value, other than the duty of bearing sons. Kingston's mother describes this role of Chinese women as being a slave. The legend of Fa Mu Lan told the story of a girl who took her father's place in battle ... woman, instead of being a wife and slave. The point of view of this particular story is in the first person. Kingston first begins by saying that her mother had told her the legend of Fa Mu Lan, and then later becomes Fa Mu Lan. The point of view is always in first per...

• Word Count: 528
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... his readers to understand the real potential of a positive attitude when dealing with the "hand that life has dealt you." The second poem by Hughes that caught my attention was "Mother to Son." The words of the poem are the words of a mother to her son. The words advise him to follow her example and "don"t you turn back" (Hughes ... , "Mother to Son" 810). Hughes uses "crystal stair" (Hughes, "Mother to Son" 809) to symbolize the white mans ease in the society to which they live. The mother's tone has a feeling of desperation. "Don"t you set down on the steps / Cause you finds it's kinde...

• Word Count: 624
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... children safe and do what was best for their children. For example, the whole story Beloved is based on a true story of a mother who killed her children to save them from slavery. The real life mother, Margaret Garner, knew that death would bring peace to her children rather than suffering. She did not want her children to have to ... the life that she was living, so her solution was for them to die. It was very brave and noble of her to come to the conclusion that every mother probably fears; the death of their child. And to be the one whom makes that conclusion possible leaves many pe...

• Word Count: 999
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . He was the son of a slave name Harriet Bailey, and his father was a white man who he never knew, or met before. When he was an infant, Douglass and his mother were separated. He never knew her as his mother because at an early age they separate children from their mothers which usually happens before the child becomes one year old. His ... mother made her way to see him only at night by traveling on foot. His mother soon died and Frederick Douglass was not able to be there for her sickness, her death, and ... the burial. His mother died long before he known about it. Frederick Douglas...

• Word Count: 726
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Jacobs' narrative describes her struggle as a slave and her constant pursuit of freedom. Until Jacobs was six years old, she lived in a house with her brother, mother, and father. Jacobs relates the details of her early childhood as an unusually happy one for a slave child. When Jacobs is six-years-old, her ... mother becomes ill and passes away. Jacobs and her brother, Willie, were then under the care of her mother's mistress. When Jacobs was twelve years old her mistress died and she was sold to Dr. Flint's five-year- ... gives an account of when "a young slave girl dying soon after ...

• Word Count: 1073
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... her children lived a much better life and most importantly they all lived free. In the book Linda has mixed feelings about her children because like any mother she so dearly loves them. She doesn't want them to go through the same things that she has so she wants them to die, but since ... them so much she doesn't want to become like other slave mothers by losing her children. How torn and powerless she must have felt as a slave mother. Linda also speaks of "The Slaves New Year's Day", this was the time that slaves everywhere were sold and leased. Many mothers were torn from their ... ...

• Word Count: 1014
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... to make the correct decisions for their children. Whether it is with their children's friends, their behavior, or any other aspect of their life. The Mother in Beloved by Toni Morrison, as well as the mother in Media by Euripides, makes decisions concerning the survival of their children, but were these mothers looking out for the best interest of their child or ... themselves. In Beloved by Toni Morrison, the mother makes a very crucial decision in the lives of her children. The mother in this story, Sethe, concludes that it would be better for her children to be dead then for her chil...

• Word Count: 677
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... and they add to the surrealism and similarly the ghostliness of her work. Through flashbacks in the extract, our narrator manifestly declares her prior knowledge of her mother and sister. She recalls of how she was "there in the creek" whilst Denver played and how the "clouds were noisy and in the way". ... Like a child that cannot sleep Beloved has returned from the other side to be with her family and she needs to feel protected and wishes to see her mother smile at her, Will we smile at me? (Beloved) Can't you see I'm smiling? (Sethe) I love your face. (Beloved) In addition both belov...

• Word Count: 1126
• Approx Pages: 5

... backwater tramps" were the husbands of the historical black women. The husband was called this because they only worked in the fields, ate, and slept and didn't do anything else. Mother and grandmother's represented the historical black women. The historical black woman was also called Matriarchs because the historical black women basically ran the house. The men didn't have much to ... contemporary young black woman had to take care of and treat them like a God. The "garden" described by in the essay allowed Walker to express her mother's creativity and talent that her mother possessed...

• Word Count: 972
• Approx Pages: 4

... ourselves. There are many themes that you choose from this book. For instance, dealing with the past, slavery, and mother-daughter relationships. Of these themes, I can mostly relate to the mother-daughter relationship. There is a quote that I think symbolizes the love between Sethe and beloved, "Beloved could not keep ... her eyes off of Sethe." This quote shows me that there is nothing that can replace or imitate the mother-daughter relationship. The whole novel was about helping Sethe deal with and try to recover from the murder-sacrifice for her daughter. I learned ... to respect an...

• Word Count: 1241
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... has used irony to its fullest potential, creating short stories that capture the reader. "Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery" (84). That is what Armand's mother wrote to his father in Chopin's "Desiree's Baby." The irony revolves around the two main characters and their baby, who ... being dark skinned. The irony is revealed as Armand is burning the personal belongings when he comes across some letters. One of the letters is from his mother to his father. It explains how Armand's mother was a slave and tha...

• Word Count: 646
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... a plantation owner. Clel Waller was the master at this particular plantation. Childhood for Sarny was never all that great. At the age of four her "birthing Mammy", birth mother, was sold. This event should not have affected Sarny that much because none of the birthing mothers were allowed to keep their own children. As soon as Sarny was born ... Old Delie, the mother who would raise her, took over the care of Sarny. Delie raises all of the little children and keeps a stick for each child that she marks with a notch each summer ... quarters, take care of the yard, and gather eggs. Sarn...

• Word Count: 1194
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... slavery and has been haunted by the ghost of her first born for 18 years. Sethe lives in this haunted house with her daughter Denver, who is effected by her mother's choice to forget the past. Later on Paul D, an old friend of Sethe, visits Sethe, which brings up some old memories. Beloved discusses America's relationship with slavery and the effects ... surface that help Sethe understand her past and herself. For example, in Chapter 6, Beloved gets Sethe to talk about the death of her mother, something she has tried to forget. Sethe remembers the African language spoken by her mother r...

• Word Count: 966
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School