Mother To The Tribe Essay, Research Paper

English 1302

November 27, 1996

Mother To The Tribe

Throughout clip people have been oppugning their society. Many wonder if the beliefs and imposts of their civilization are really what is in the involvement of themselves or even the multitudes. Timess of adversity can make strong and powerful people to convey about alteration ; nevertheless the agencies to accomplish such is relevant to 1s ethical motives or moralss. For many would hold utilitarianism is the best path to take when seeking to pacify most persons ; nevertheless what can be the effects of such & # 8220 ; felicity & # 8221 ; ? Marge Piercy efforts to make a Utopian society that patterns this thought, but to accomplish such a success many present societal beliefs must be annihilated. Mothering plays a major subject in Piercy? s fresh Woman on the Edge of Time. She non merely uses a female parent as the chief character, but creates a whole Utopian society based on the female parent. Piercy contributes this novel as a political statement to turn to the adversities and societal unfairnesss of the powerless. Woman on the Edge of Time is a narrative of a in-between aged Chicano adult female who has been denied the right to populate with the socially prudent. Harmonizing to Kevstin Shands, Piercy says: & # 8220 ; It is chiefly a novel about Connie. There? s a batch about societal unfairness in it, and about how a adult female stops detesting herself and becomes able to love herself plenty to contend for her ain endurance & # 8221 ; ( 66 ) . In Marge Piercy? s Woman on the Edge of Time the motive of mothering is the footing of the narrative ; she uses a female parent as the supporter and creates a Utopian society based on the strength of the nurturing.

To see how the female parent subject is woven throughout the narrative one must detect how Connie is in the present, every bit good as the hereafter. In the present Connie is considered a pervert. She has grown to be a adult female that is rejected by society because she is uneducated, Hispanic, hapless, and more significantly female. The future universe is one that contradicts the present. It is the Utopia that embraces Connies? inactive and submissive qualities ; intern doing Connie to interrupt free from the subjugation of the modern times by giving her a feeling of ego worth.

In the beginning chapter Piercy establishes the character Connie Ramos as a really sensitive nurturer. With the entryway of Dolly, Connie? s niece, we see Connie play the function as female parent to the distraught and beaten niece. & # 8220 ; Awkwardly Connie embraced her [ Dolly? s ] shoulders, her custodies stealing on the satin of her blouse & # 8221 ; ( 9 ) . Piercy? s description here causes the reader to see this scene as soothing ; her usage of the animal words like embracing and stealing on the satin conveying a feeling of alleviation ; for Dolly is now safe from injury. Piercy farther describes Connie? s attention to Dolly as follows: & # 8220 ; She undressed Dolly tenderly as a babe, but her niece groaned and cursed and wept more & # 8221 ; ( 11 ) . This is a really of import line. The nurturing act is non received as positive. This negativeness is non merely due to the hurting Dolly is experiencing, but is representative of Connie being rejected as a female parent in the modern clip. When Geraldo arrives Dolly and her unborn kid are threatened. His programs to abort the babe promote the nurturing female parent inherent aptitude within Connie to protect her incapacitated niece. Elaine Hansen describes the scene:

The instrument of force she chooses- presumptively because it is close to hand- carries marked symbolic weight. As we learn a small subsequently, the bottle, one of the few ornaments in Connie? s black two-room level, contained dried flowers and grasses gathered on a rare household excursion, a field day with her alienated brother, Luis, her niece Dolly, and Dolly? s babe girl Nita. What Connie remembers most about this field day is that Nita, merely larning to walk, fell asleep in her weaponries, and that she was allowed to keep her: & # 8220 ; She had sat on the cover combustion, transfigured with keeping that little sweet-breathing flush-faced morsel & # 8221 ; ( WET 34 ) . It is the titillating, animal, & # 8220 ; glorifying & # 8221 ; possibility of keeping an baby that Connie inadvertently throws off, in consequence, when she scatters the & # 8220 ; nostalgic grasses & # 8221 ; ( WET 16 ) and breaks the vino jug over Geraldo? s nose. At the same clip, in perpetrating this act she takes the violative as a female parent and on behalf of female parents and fussing. ( 24 )

The bottle is used as a symbol of birth and power, but represents an unnatural manner to

provender 1s kid. For the adult female is a vas which carries life. We besides see the bottle

used as the destructive force that claims triumph over Connie? s oppressive physicians by it

being used as the instrument to transport Connie? s toxicant. One farther discovers the

symbolic vas used in Piercy? s hereafter Utopia. The & # 8220 ; Brooder & # 8221 ; , which refers to a machine

that bottles babes once more is reenforcing this thought. Piercy continues to stand for the bottle or

the deficiency at that place of by holding the future female parents or & # 8220 ; Coms & # 8221 ; , feed their kid with their ain

chest alternatively of the immaterial bottle. After Connie has committed the motherly act

of protecting & # 8220 ; her about child [ Dolly ] & # 8221 ; ( 20 ) ; she is within the clasps of the vile

modern system. Connie no longer has the rights given to the free person. The war has

begun ; she will no longer digest the maltreatment that has been dealt to her throughout her life.

The patriarch society has interfered excessively long to sufficiently accomplish felicity within

Connie. For her whole life Connie has been pushed around as a adult females. & # 8220 ; All my life I

been pushed around by my male parent, by my brother Luis, by schools, by foremans, by bulls, by

physicians and attorneies and social workers and procurers and landlords. By everybody who could

push & # 8221 ; ( 99 ) . The present society continues to repress Connie by puting her within

the confines of a mental establishment ; where the patriarchal system attempts to free her of her

fostering affliction. & # 8220 ; You have a perennial disease, like person who has a recurrent

malaria & # 8221 ; ( 373 ) . Locked up and fed with many tranquillizers she starts to reflect upon

her state of affairs. In a heartsick province of self-pity and self-hatred, Piercy has Connie venture

to past agonising events. & # 8220 ; As a female parent, your actions are scandalous and uncontrolled? . & # 8221 ;

( 60 ) . This statement best sums up the present society? s position of Connie? s mothering

ability.

Connie? s clip going friend Luciente is Piercy? s manner to present Connie and

the reader to her ( Piercy? s ) Utopian vision, Mattapoisett. & # 8220 ; Indeed, Connie is chosen for the trial undertaking because of her extraordinary capacity for empathy & # 8221 ; ( Orr 62 ) . Libby Jones writes: & # 8220 ; Interacting with the hereafter allows Connie to deliver her present every bit good as preserve and even reinvent her yesteryear. Rather than set up past, present, as a logical continuum, the fresh blends them in Connie? s consciousness & # 8221 ; ( 123 ) . In rebelliousness of the patriarchal society Piercy has her supporter? s incarcerating characteristic be the measure uping factor that causes Connie to go into the hereafter. While locked in privacy in her despondent province Connie is visited by Luciente. This sce

Ne is brooding of the antecedently discussed scene with Dolly. Now happening herself ( Connie ) in the abused province Dolly was, Connie is offered the same nurturing that she offered Dolly earlier: “Luciente came over and carefully put an arm around her [ Connie? s ] , shoulder” ( 67 ) . Piercy simulates these two episodes to bode the embrace of Connie? s ain ego. The thought is that Connie, a female parent, must be nurtured herself by society to be a self- loving and sufficient female parent. Here Connie ventures with Luciente to the brilliant town of Mattapoisett. Piercy? s description is really animal to once more emphasize the nurturing subject. Connie has arrived at the pinnacle of freedom. This futuristic topographic point is one in which the female parent is respected and considered the most critical and of import plus. “ ? .She [ Connie ] smelled salt in the air, a fen nip. A zephyr ruffled the loose shred of frock, chilling her calves? . [ Luciente provinces ] look how pretty it is! ” ( 68 ) . Piercy has created a society that is non patriarchal, but matriarchal. Piercy even uses the character? s names as a wordplay to the different societies. Luis and Luciente are evidently both derived functions of the same root name Lue. She uses this elusive composing tactic to convey the thought of the two highly opposite civilizations. Luis the oppressor and brother of Connie is used to stand for the subjugation by the present civilization, for he is the 1 that commits Connie to the mental establishment, and the 1 that permits the physicians to experiment on her. Luciente the liberator, is the 1 that non merely physically frees Connie from her privacy, but mentally frees her every bit good. Luciente is the driving factor that encourages Connie to go self -loving and dignified. Mattapoisett is full of many challenging things. When Connie arrives, she is surprised to see that the occupants live in what she refers, “Way out in the sticks.” Luciente answers by saying: “We Don? Ts have large cities-they didn? T work” ( 68 ) .

Harmonizing to Patrricia Huckle, Piercy? s Utopian hereafter fits the women’s rightist cast. Huckle writes:

Piercy? .follow [ s ] the ideological issues outlined by Firestone:

& # 8230 ; the first demand for any alternate system must be: 1 ) the liberation of adult female from the dictatorship of their generative biological science by every agency available, and the diffusion of the childbearing function to the society as a whole? 2 ) the full self-government, including economic independency, of both adult females and kids? 3 ) the entire integrating of adult females and kids into all facets of the larger society, [ and ] ? 4 ) the freedom of all adult females and kids to make whatever they wish to make sexually. ( 131 )

Piercy manages to carry through all of the demands. In Mattapoisett biological parturition is no longer the recognized norm of society. All worlds are born from a machine called the & # 8220 ; Brooder & # 8221 ; . & # 8220 ; All in a sulky row, babes bobbed. Mother the machine? .Languidly they drifted in a blind school. & # 8221 ; While sing the female parent machine Connie sees, & # 8220 ; One dark female was kicking & # 8221 ; ( 102 ) . This scene reflects to a statement Connie makes earlier in the novel when she is watching kids play on a resort area. & # 8220 ; Yes, the miss who kicks herself would be mine & # 8221 ; ( 40 ) ! The reoccurring thought of a kicking kid causes the reader to tie in it as a symbol of Connie. The thought behind the kicking kid represents the turning radical construct Connie is gestating. While in the hereafter utopia Connie discovers many differences among the present and future civilization. They ( citizens of Mattapoisett ) have decided to do fussing a kid a community matter ; nevertheless there are three female parents or & # 8220 ; Coms & # 8221 ; that serve as the kid? s chief beginning of fostering. It does non count though if one is male. He is still able to fuss and even able to breast provender if he chooses. In present society the thought of the adoptive & # 8220 ; household & # 8221 ; is considered to hold a negative tenet. Charlene Miall provinces, & # 8220 ; ? .attitudes within the larger community toward acceptance contributes to a sense of stigma? .which influences [ the ] perceptual experience of [ the ] households as existent or echt & # 8221 ; ( 34 ) . & # 8220 ; The community [ Mattapoisett ] feels that fussing should non acquire assorted up with sexual love because a kid might go caught in the dissensions that are prone to happen in a love state of affairs. For this ground, comothers? .are non sexually involved with one another & # 8221 ; ( Adams 41 ) . Because of the matriarchal society all member either male or female are able to profit their civilization without being restricted to the stereo-typical sexual functions. & # 8220 ; Everybody takes bends [ finishing a needed undertaking ] & # 8221 ; ( 100 ) . The kids are considered grownups at the age of 12. All young persons go through ritual transition where they wander into the wilderness and remain for a hebdomad in privacy. They do this to alleviate their coms as their female parent responsibilities and to accomplish a sense of ego. After being exposed to this Eden Connie is equipped with self-worth and respect giving her the ability to suppress the oppressive physicians. & # 8220 ; I killed them. Because it is war & # 8221 ; ( 375 ) . Judith Gardiner writes: & # 8220 ; Deprived of her ain girl, Connie dedicates her blackwash to? you who will be born from my best hopes? & # 8221 ; ( 75 ) . This statement genuinely exemplifies Connie Ramos as a heroic fostering female parent.

To oppugn one? s society is the lone manner to convey approximately necessary alteration. The present offers many differing position points on our civilizations imposts and beliefs. Piercy? s character Connie Ramos is a strong person that protects society from the menacing of future oppressive engineerings. Piercy? s Utopian civilisation allows the reader to see a wholly free community without the restraint of stereo-typical sexual functions to forestall felicity and success. Piercy believes the key to a blissful utopia lies with the ability to raising as the female parent does.

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