My mother never worked by Bonnie Smith-Yackel

2. My Mother Never Worked

 Author -Bonnie Smith-Yackel

Bonnie Smith was born in Willmar, Minnesota in 1937. She grew up on a farm and began writing in the early 1960s as a young homemaker. She wrote many short stories and essays along with book reviews in magazines and news articles.

 

Summary

 “My Mother Never Worked,” is a narrative essay written by the daughter of a working farm wife. This essay was written to give voice to a mother who spent her entire life taking care of her family and enduring the difficulties of farm life. She worked diligently up until an unfortunate car accident that left her unable to perform the normal tasks she did before. Bonnie Smith writes this article to explain her struggles with receiving the death benefits from the government, which does not view her laborious chores as "real work”.

The narrative begins with a phone call. Many people make a phone call after the death of a family member to Social Security. As the narrator of this essay goes on hold, she thinks about her mother’s life, starting from the time she graduated high school, she worked. Her first job was at general store, which she managed and worked full time, after she became a farmer’s wife. This was where the real work began: cleaning, milking, growing, weeding, canning, coking, sewing, knitting, quilting, raising, eight children and the list goes on and on. Later on, her mother met an accident in a car, which made her paralyzed from the waist down. Then, she spent the rest of her days in a wheel chair. From this wheel chair, she continued working: canning, baking, ironing, sewing, and writing letters weekly. When the writer finally gets connected the Social Security Worker, he told the writer that he is sorry but her mother gets nothing because she never worked.

Purpose and Audience

1. What point is the writer trying to make? Why do you suppose her thesis is never explicitly stated?

Ans:- The author’s whole point of the essay is to make the reader feel sympathy for her mother, because of the hardships she went through working on a farm while raising eight children, which leads us to believe she is deserving of the Social Security benefit check. Another point is general; even though, women do so much work towards their home, they don't get any credit from our society.

2. This essay appeared in Ms. Magazine and other publications whose audiences are sympathetic to feminist goals. Could it just as easily have appeared in a magazine whose audience was not? Explain.

Ans:- I think it could easily appear in a magazine whose audience was not sympathetic to feminist goals. I would say it would not be the most readable topic, and it is probably would have a lot of argumentations and critics after all.

 3. Smith-Yackel mentions relatively little about her father in this essay. How can you account for this?

Ans:- She does this because she is disappointed to hear that her mother never worked by the person on the phone. The author tried to show as many details about her mother`s work as possible; Smith-Yackel gains empathy throughout the essay for her mother by repeating the numerous jobs she had to do. This is to reinforce the message that person, who spends their whole life tending to others, is told by the society, that her work is not recognized and appreciated.

4. This essay was first published in 1975. Do you think it is dated, or do you think the issues?

Ans:- The issues it raises are still relevant today because even now most people think the same way. Women`s rights are still a controversial issue today in equal partnership world.

Style and Structure

1. Is the essay`s title effective? If so, why? If not, what alternate title can you suggest?

Ans:- No, it is not effective. I would suggest “My mother's hard works are not recognized by Social Security”

2. Smith-Yackel could have outlined her mother`s life without framing it with the telephone conversation. Why do you think she includes this frame?

Ans:- This is done to bring a sense of a reality to the text and appeal to readers. Yakel also takes full paragraph out of her mother's diary, to make an emotional connection between the reader and Yakel's mother. This also helps the readers directly relate to Yakel's mother by including dialogue that show exactly how her mother is feeling.

3. What strategies does Smith-Yackel use to indicate the passing of time in her narrative?

Ans:- Yakel includes all the dates, especially the years, so the readers can recognize or even relate to surrounding environment. Such as in 1931, Yakel's mother went through a drought, therefore people who had experiences such as this can relate to Yakel's mother's hardship.

4. This narrative piles details one on top of another almost like a list. Why does the writer include so many details?

Ans:-  The author wants the readers to recognize, appreciate and even relate to her mothers work as she does. And not discard years of service and hardship towards her family, as Social Security did. For the same reason she describes the most smallest of the details from her mom`s diary.

5. In paragraph 20 and 21 what is accomplished by the repetition of the word still?

Ans:- All the hard times the author`s mother had that period, did not stop her to take care about her family. She still continued to work hard even after all her kids grew up.