A Gift for My Mother
The first a person sees for first time is his/her mother. The mother, both of humans and animals is the most important person for them. It is her who takes care of the little baby and it’s also almost every time her, who has the main role in a child’s upbringing. For the child the mother is also very precious. Every child loves and needs its mother. During the upbringing a child doesn’t know much, but the mother teaches him. For a child the world is more different than for an adult. The child experiences the behavior of the parents in a far other way, sometimes the child misinterprets events, and sometimes it just simplifies events and doesn’t know the seriousness of the situation. In this short story “A Gift for My Mother”, written by Viv McDade and published in 2011, the main character is a 10 year old little girl, who sees that her parents having some problems, therefore she tries to help them on her own way.
The Story is told by a first person narrator, who’s a little 10 year old girl. It is through her point of view the story is told. The girl’s name is Lucy; she goes to school and loves to do her homework with her father. We know what she feels and what she thinks, but we just see and understand everything as she understands and not as the other persons in the story. She thinks that her father is better in teaching then her teacher Mrs. Emmerson. This is also shown in the text; “He’s very good at explaining things and never makes you feel nervous or stupid. My mother thinks his job at the garage isn’t much, but he is a far better teacher then Mrs. Emmerson.” (Page 1 line 24-26). As it is shown in this quote, Lucy is aware, that her parents have problems since Lucy knows what her mother thinks of the job her father is doing.
It is obvious for the reader that Lucy doesn’t understand her parents, in that she doesn’t conclude the discussions between her parents, and she just tells word in word what her parents say. “”Hello”, he said, as if he was asking a question, and my mother’s voice was tired and small.” (Page 1 line 27-28). Lucy doesn’t know what the reactions of her parents mean. We see that, because if she could, she would know what their discussions were about and why they are reacting on such a weird way. Neither did Lucy understand the reaction of her mother when she gave her the money. “Others asked why I had to give it back but I wasn’t able to tell them.” (Page 4 line 161-162). Lucy doesn’t understand, that her mother doesn’t want the money because it is about honor, people may think that the mother sent Lucy out to sell flowers and that would be degrading for the mother.
Lucy loves flowers and when she is out to get some for her mother, she also describes each flower. She is very fascinated by the Nature and there she forgets everything, she does just focus on the flowers. She relates the nature to anything else on her own childish way, which sees on the following quote; “The leaves of the Msasa trees were shiny, and the sun made it look as if there were diamonds on the big granite boulders.” (Page 2 line 46-47). Lucy is also a very smart girl, and tries also to figure out anything else on her own way, for example she tries to figure out the time, by looking at the shadows.
The story takes place in South Africa, where Lucy is a member of a little and modest family. Their house is near some factories on the way to the airport, by that we see, that they do live outskirts a bigger city, because almost everywhere airports are outskirts a bigger city. In the text there is also a difference between classes, when Lucy says, that her mother was thinking of the houses on the other side of the railway line. Lucy describes the kind of house her mother has told her and which she dreams of. “..houses with hallways and moulded skirting boards and neighbors who didn’t go down the shops with chiffon scarves over their curlers.” (Page 1 line 10-12). That means the railway line is both a physically and a symbolic description between the rich and the poor people.
Lucy has a very near relationship to her father, every day when her father comes home after work, Lucy tells him about her day. The father calls her “my precious”, but the mother doesn’t like it and again finds something to criticize the father with. “For God’s sake, it is a wonder the child hasn’t grown up thinking her name was My Precious.” (Page 1 line 17-18). By that the mother involves Lucy within their conflict, by that it could very well be that Lucy would think she is the reason for the discussion the parents have. Lucy loves her mother, and her mother also loves her which sees in the following quote: “… and hugged med against her when she came down the steps. “That blouse is lovely,” she said...” (Page 4 line 134-135). Something else that shows Lucy’s love for her mother is that she sells flowers and gives the money she earns from it to her mother as a gift. Symbolic the flowers show the mothers mood, in the beginning when Lucy gave her mother the flowers, she laid them at the window and was very happy, “… put them on the windowsill beside the stove so she could see them while she was cooking.” (Page 1 line 5-7). After the discussion she laid the flowers into the dark, and this shows that the mother wasn’t happy any more.
The main theme in the story is how naïve children are. The title “A Gift for My Mother” emphasizes the childish thoughts of Lucy. While it is a good thing for Lucy to sell the flowers and get the money, for her mother it is horrible. The way the mother thinks is the opposite of the way Lucy does think. That means that the title shows the contrast between the world of adult and the children, which is shown by Lucy and her Mother.