Explore The Treatment of Place in Any 2/3 Poems of Seamus Heaney

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TUTORIAL 1

Course Titile:
21st Century American and British Literatures
Course no: LECS 501

Assignment on

Explore the treatment of Place in any 2/3 poems of Seamus


Heaney.

Submitted By:
Sabbir Ahmed
Roll no: 1547
Dept of English
Jahangirnagar University

Microsoft account
[COMPANY NAME]  [Company address]
Toni Morrison’s ninth novel A Mercy (published in 2008) offers a several distinct images of

motherhood. We can see how the female characters like Florens, her mother, Sorrow, Rebecca,

and Lina feels differently about it. The mothers in this novel serves motherhood differently as

effected by Race, social and marital status. Some are mothers, some were mothers, some acts as

mother, and some long for mother.

The novel starts with Florens’s remembrances of her past. Her mother was an African

slave in America working in a plantation owned by a Portuguese couple. To Florens, her mother

did not love her. In childhood Florens was fascinated for shoes. But her mother did not let her

put on shoes even if a broken trashy pair were found. At last one day her mother abandoned her.

She was sold and brought to another place. Florens thinks her mother hated her. She was not a

good mother.

Only Florens’s mother knows the reason why she could be so harsh to her daughter. Actually

their owner D’Ortega was not a good guy. She was physically and sexually abused by him.

When he was about to sell her, she thought in her absence Florence might be abused by him. So,

to protect her child from D’Ortega’s abuse, she requested to send Florens instead of herself. She

did this just to save her daughter from a horrific violence. It shows that in slavery motherhood is

torturous.

The white woman Rebecca sees motherhood from a different perspective. She was happily

married to Jacob, a self-made rich man. So her children are the product of legal marriage to a

man she loves. Poverty and torture does not affect her love. She adores her children. She could

have an enjoyable motherhood. But unfortunately her motherhood is a story of immense

heartbreaking. None of her children survives. Rebekka’s boy children died in infancy. Her

daughter dies after being kicked on head by a horse. She experiences a painful motherhood.
After Florens joins to serve Rebecca’s family, their servant Lina starts as a surrogate mother to

Florens. Lina was childless. She enjoys a caring, and loving relationship with Florens. She

brushes Florens’s hair and take care of her. Their close relationship shows that motherhood does

not necessarily have to be biological to be meaningful. As this relationship was unofficial, coul

not be recognized by others. At last Rebecca wanted to sell Florens away. It shows the harsh

reality of slave system in case of motherhood.

Another character Sorrow had a socially illegal relationship with a man. She is mentally ill, and

dependent on others. Her pregnancies are viewed as problems by the people all around her.

Because she is not capable of mothering a child. But after giving birth to her healthy second

child, everything changes. Her motherhood improves her mental health and makes her

responsible and caring. Even she changes her name after the child’s birth from “Sorrow” to

“Complete”. It shows us how motherhood made her feel complete. This idea of her equates

motherhood with womanhood. Because she thinks herself complete only as a mother.

Toni Morrison has highlighted how crucially motherhood can suffer in slavery. Florens’s mother

who is not a perfect mother in her daughter’s perspective in unnamed in the whole novel. She

loves her children and was aware of their wellbeing. She has seen her mistress wearing shoes.

When her daughter wanted to wear shoes, she did not let it happen. She thought only bad women

were shoes. She did not want Florens to be a bad woman. When D’Ortega offers Jacob a slave,

Jacob wanted Folrens’s mother. But she knows that D’Ortega abuses his slaves.she herself was

abused by him many times. She did not want it to happen with Florens. To protect her daughter

she requested to give Florens away with Jacob instead of her. This shows us how motherhood is

helpless in slavery. Getting young Florens among them, Jacob’s another servant Lina feels

motherhood in herself. She performed motherly duties towards her. A mother does not want her
child to surrender. Mothers have conscious eyes upon their children’s choices and tries to guide

them. When Lina came to know about the intimate relationship between Florens and the

blacksmith, she remembers her own past. She was in a relationship with someone too. But at last

she was cheated and left by the man. So, Lina was afraid of Florens’s possible heartbreaking.

She tried to guide her like a mother. She was also unsecured about her beloved unofficial

daughter. Lina did not want to lose her. But Rebecca’s decision to sell Florens shows the

affection Lina feels as a surrogated mother. Sorrow’s motherhood was a blessing in her very

personal life too. Her mental condition was developed. She starts feeling complete as a mother.

Toni Morrison’s novel A Mercy challenges the conventional portrayals of motherhood. It

is one of the main themes of this novel. Pictures from different perspectives of motherhood are

portrayed through different characters. Morrison shows the complexity of black women’s

experiences as mothers. This analysis of different forms of motherhood suggests that there is no

fairy tale like idealized story about mothers in these novels. Black mothers cannot be judged as

good or bad as their motherhood is effected by a lot of factors. In this novel motherhood is not

limited to biological connections too. The presentation of motherhood in A Mercy reflects the

many possible manifestations of such bonds during slavery and in its aftermath.

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