Mothers (14)

Today in America everyone is celebrating mother’s day. This day is an entire day dedicated to honoring your mother. Our mothers do so much for us that we often forget to realize to be thankful. Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues and Jasmine, the main character from our new novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee are thankful for their mothers even though some of the things they said or did are not things that any child would want to hear about. They are two honorable women that see the compassion in their mother’s actions and have a positive outlook on life.

Eve Ensler was sexually abused by her father at a very young age. Her other two siblings and her mother remained untouched. In a recent interview with Eve Ensler that we watched in our Women’s Literature class, she explained that her mother had once told her that Ensler was her “sacrifice.” She then spoke about how she understood why her mother did that and as most children would be terribly angry with their mother, she was not. She said that her mother came from a very poor family and was not really going to be able to do much with her life, until she met Ensler’s father, whom saved her from her old life. She said that it would have been nearly impossible for her mother to leave everything and go back to the life she had once lived. Hearing Ensler speak so compassionately about her mother after knowing something like that is incredible.

Jasmine, a character in our new book was telling a mother with the name of Wylie and her son the story of when her mother tried to kill her. She said, “When the midwife carried me out, my sisters tell me, I had a ruby red chocker of bruised around my throat and sapphire fingerprints on my collar bone.” When Wylie hears this she hugs her child closer to her. Jasmine then goes on to say, “My mother was a sniper. She wanted to spare me the pain of a dowrylessbride. My mother wanted a happy life for me.” The Jasmine goes on to tell Wylie how much her mother loves her, and that her actions after Jasmine’s birth were done because Jasmine’s mother wanted her to be re-born into a better life.

These two women, Ensler and Jasmine, are two of the most honorable women. They notice the love behind their mother’s actions, even troubling ones. As humans we are so quick to assume that everything is done with bad intentions, when most of the time they are not, it just tends to come off that way to us. These women have a positive outlook on life and I think that they are all examples of women that we should want to be.