| dc.description.abstract | The mother-daughter relationship has been neglected in literature throughout history. Literary feminist works such as Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution helped forefront the relationship, and this thesis is a contribution to the attention the important relationship deserves. Elizabeth Strout is an American author who has portrayed the relationship multiple times and in different ways. This thesis will focus on two of her most recent works – My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible.
The two works of fiction are generically different in order to present a range of different mother-daughter relationships. In her fiction, Strout demonstrates how the conceptualization cannot be limited to a single recipe. Rather, the dynamic between mother and daughter depends on their individual features and emotional intelligence. These aspects are affected by the women’s upbringing and circumstances.
Whereas My Name is Lucy Barton shows how marital loyalty and socioeconomic struggles can limit your options as a mother, “Windmills” and “Mississippi Mary” from Anything is Possible portray two separate instances of mothers who left their husbands and children in order to pursue their freedom. All choices lead to strained relationships with their daughters. Thus, by exploring a variety of women whose lives are different, Strout also shows how some choices are often constrained by circumstances beyond their control. Nevertheless, in the short stories, the mothers and daughters were given space to learn to accept their differences. The daughters learn to understand their mothers outside of their predefined roles, and instead value them as individual women. | |