The role and impact of a mother in her child’s life is just as, if not more influential, than that of any other person their child encounters throughout a lifetime. Both mother and father contribute to shaping their children and have a profound impact on the type of person that the child will become as an adult. Sometimes this influence is positive and at other times it is negative but regardless of the positive or negative effects that parents have, the point is how much they influence and impact their children.
In Shawn Wong’s Homebase his mother shaped who he was as a man just as much as the stories of his forefathers. In his search for place and identity, he was able to resolve so many unanswered questions within himself based on the way his mother talked to him and related to him. Her interactions with her son always seemed to be what he needed however he didn’t seem to realize her motivation behind things until after she was dead. By the age of fifteen, Rainsford was an orphan and it was his reflections upon his mothers teachings that contributed to him realizing who he was, where he was from, and that he had truly become his father, his father’s father, and his great-grandfather. He was all of these men despite them all leaving this world by the time our protagonist was seven. Rainsford’s mother made sure he knew how to iron clothes, schooled him in the floral business, and how to properly shake a man’s hand. “Shake it again. Harder. Harder. I shook her hand as firmly as I could. ‘Now, whenever you are introduced to another man, remember to shake his hand as firmly as you can. End of lesson’” (Wong, 44). In addition to teaching him things that would benefit him both personally and socially, she also kept his father alive by telling Rainsford about his father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather. “My mother knew she had to tell me about his youth and the lives of my grandfathers as he had told her. She had to tell me who kept pace with his youth, what was the grief that shaped his sensibility, and who struggled to make a place for him, for me. She had to make me more than just her husband’s son, more than understanding his sensibility, but rather make me realize it on my own and sometime in my life say simply ‘I am the son of my father’” (Wong, 39). The other thing that his mother did was encouraging habits and fostering characteristics that were similar is not identical to his father’s. This was her purpose, her mission, her goal to create a man that would be like and would honor the men before him. “I brought to her bedside my water polo awards, the swimming medals. But she saw that I was now like my father, the track star, the basketball and ice hockey player, and whether I had realized it then or not did not matter to her, she had succeeded in forming me into her notion of manly style, and in her eyes I had become simply her husband’s son” (Wong, 37). The mother of this story successfully turned her son into what she believed his ancestors to be and he would continue to honor their history and legacy not just within their family but within this country.
picture: http://www.kued.org/productions/chineseamerican/resources/pressphotos.html
Carla: My favorite detail about Rainsford's mother is her jade bracelet. I absolutely love how Wong evokes that bracelet's beauty, and the sound it makes as it clinks against things while she's cleaning or doing other work for her son.
ReplyDeleteHere's my favorite passage about her. It's both heartbreaking and lovely:
"[W]hen she died I was mad that she had failed me. She had no longer wanted to stand by my side. After my mother died I was alone, but I did not cry. My sleep tore me apart, and gave her flesh back to me in pieces, her voice with no substance, and finally nothing but a hollow sound would wake me, her jade bracelet knocking against the house as she moved around, cleaning, cooking, writing. It had become for me, in those dreams, the rhythmic beating of her heart. There was no need for me to put my head against her chest to hear the beating of her heart. The cold stone, jade in my eyes, filled my youth and kept time with the unsteady beating of my own heart" (40-41).
Sigh. Lovely.
Hello Carla, I really like your title to your blog, “A Mother's Love, Quest, and Influence.” It went perfectly with the point of view you were trying to express in your blog. Before reading your blog I had read your title and when I finished your writing I was satisfied that I received the information I assumed I was going to receive from the blog. Well done Carla.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I appreciated your point of view with the relationship between Rainsford and his mother. While reading the novel I was so caught up with interpreting his poetic style of writing that I had overlooked this relationship. Not entirely, but enough to not place as much value in the relationship as you have. I am journaling on this novel in another class I’m taking so I’m re-reading it only this time I am being more thorough in my reading. This time around I am sure to keep in my mind the importance of the relationship between Rainsford and his mother.
I like how you pointed out, “…his mother shaped who he was as a man just as much as the stories of his forefathers.” She did just that and I overlooked it for some reason, guess it would be a good idea for me to begin sharpening my reading skills.
I have to say my value towards the relationship between he and his mother is similar to mine and my mother’s. My mom was an enormous influence on the route my life took throughout the years. She is a wonderful women and the insight she had provided me in my adolescent years is priceless. Thank you again for sharing your point of view of Homebase.