A Mother’s Fondness takes us through the relationship of a mother and a teenage daughter.
The 1st account ‘The Mother’ I placed myself in the dominant reading position (Moon, 2010, p.129). I saw the mother as a concerned parent who cared dearly about her daughter’s safety, but lacked a connection with her, as she did not show her any emotion or concern once she found her. This is due to a great lack in communication.
I saw the daughter to be a very selfish, angry and rude young girl. She did not bother to call her mother to tell her where she was or even apologise. This is evident in that ‘she was very quiet and looked at me (mother) coldly’.
The second account ‘The Daughter’ my reading position changed to the resistant position. My view on the daughter changed, I saw her as lonely, fearful and a thoughtful child. She was so lonely that she confined in a person she hardly knew, rather than her mother. She was fearful of her mother, as all they seemed to do was have a ‘row’, even though she was careless in not being conscientious of the time she was thoughtful in being concerned about her mother’s feeling as to where she was, “Mum’ll go daft”.
My view on the mother changed also. She appeared to be a ‘worry wart’ (overly concerned) in having pessimistic thoughts. She justified everything by saying ‘It was my fault she was as she was… I had brought it on myself.’ The communication between the two still remains poor.
When looking at the text as one, you can see both characters are headstrong and lack emotional connection, through their lack of communication.
Examining why I have viewed the characters in this way I have to look at my own personal beliefs and values. I feel a connection with the daughter in the second passage as my own relationship with my mother lacks emotional connection. She over reacts in an exaggerated manner and doesn’t listen, which results in a break down in communication. All things that cause tensions are dismissed ad ignored.
Culturally I see the mother and daughter in the discourse as white middle class women. My partner’s family, who are of an Asian background, would not dismiss the issues that were raised in this story. Issues of any manner would not be dismissed, and they would be settled on the spot.
In the workshop we were asked the effects of having the two texts juxtaposed, not integrated. Looking at this in detail I saw it outlines the relationship of the mother and daughter.
They have a conflicting relationship which the use of juxtaposing the two, shows how separated they are from one another. It also makes parallels of how alike they are, as they both want to be shown love, through the emotions of caring and concern for one another.
‘A Mother’s Fondness’ caused my reading positions to change from dominant to resistant, which is what the author’s purpose was in juxtaposing not integrating the two accounts.
The use of identifying this is a useful teaching tool. Using these tool students can make the connection between the differences and the similarities of the characters, in turn allowing students to challenge or clarify their original reading positions.