All human beings spend the first nine months of their life in their mother's womb. From birth, we struggle with the notion of “mother”: we love this woman and feel intense connections with her, and yet we inevitably need to separate from her. At some point, we all have to cut the famous umbilical cord, and it is often an extremely painful process for ourselves and for our mothers. In Tar Baby, Lucy and Brown Girl, Brownstones, Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid and Paule Marshall address this issue of the "maternal problem", the human need to break free from the maternal bond and create a set of values, expectations and of desires. for oneself independent of the maternal. Jadine, Lucy, and Selina go through very different processes in these novels, but what connects them is their struggle for freedom and to establish themselves beyond the framework of the mother. In that sense, then, they are all coming-of-age novels, as they trace the progress of three black women trying to carve out a place for themselves in the world. In the following pages, I will discuss the way in which each of these protagonists negotiates this powerful “maternal problem”, their rebellions against it, and the effectiveness of their respective strategies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Jadine Childs' mother died when she was twelve, but that doesn't exonerate her from motherhood issues, because Jadine is haunted by images of the maternal world. This is established early in the book, when Morrison tells us about the “mother/sister/her” that Jadine meets in a Parisian supermarket, “with eyes whose strength had burned the lashes.” (Tar Baby p. 46) This woman in yellow is the supreme representation of femininity and motherhood, with "too much hips, too much bust" and symbolic eggs in her hand. Jadine is extremely uncomfortable with this woman, and yet she also falls in love with her; this tension defines his attitude towards the maternal. Later, we learn that Ondine and Sydney, her uncle and aunt who had become "her people" since her mother's death, "meant a lot to her, but what they thought didn't matter." (p. 49) Jadine has visibly distanced herself from “her people” and the notion of motherhood, and this alienation will come back to haunt her, literally, as the book progresses. For Jadine, as for many people, the notion of the maternal often manifests itself in forms other than that of mother per se, such as tradition, history, the notion of home and the feeling of responsibility towards others. Jadine rejects all of this and, in doing so, rejects the maternal and the idea of ​​family. His stated appreciation of Picasso on Itumba masks and "Ave Maria" on gospel music are examples of his renunciation of his cultural roots. And in Eloe, an all-black town, Jadine feels extremely distant from Son's friends and parents; she is incapable of identifying with members of her own race. As Thérèse notes, Jadine “forgot her former properties”. (p. 305) She is uncomfortable with her heritage as a black woman and feels alienated from the culture of her mother and her mother's mothers; it is therefore a way of rejecting the maternal. Jadine's relationships with the people in her life are also indicative of this struggle with the notion of motherhood. Although Jadine is affectionate towards Sydney and "Nanadine", her surrogate mother of sorts, she is not very respectful or caring; his decision to leave L'Arbe de la Croix with Son without informing them illustrates his stance towards his family. Jadine doesn't like itthe difficulties Sydney and Ondine faced in supporting her, and her constant reminders to Son that Valériane "put her in school" make it clear that she credits Valérian for her education and opportunities, not her aunt and to his uncle. Jadine's rejection of any responsibility towards "her people" is in itself a form of rebellion against the maternal. Jadine's relationship with Son is another form in which she addresses ideas of the maternal. Morrison writes that Son “completely orphaned her,” Son became a home for her, and “gave her a whole new childhood” (p. 229). Yet Son also confronts her with her own failures and weaknesses; at one point in the novel, he tells her "you know nothing, nothing at all about your children, and nothing at all about your mother". (p. 265) Jadine cannot accept being so vulnerable to someone, compromising for him or being held accountable to him, and she ends up leaving Son; this is part of her rejection of the maternal. In Eloe, Jadine confronts Son's house and ends up rejecting it too. Jadine has never had a home and is worried about being called "girl" by an older woman. This unease manifests itself in the form of maternal ghosts, which haunt her at night. These women, including her own mother and the supermarket “mother/sister/her,” expose their breasts and eggs to her, taunting Jadine with their maternal prowess. She exclaims, “I have breasts too,” but they don’t believe her, and neither does the reader. These women represent the maternal force that constantly haunts Jadine, and that she herself can never possess. Interestingly, in this scene we learn that Jadine normally dreams of hats; this is significant because of her tearful revelation to Son earlier in the novel about the "terrible hat" she had worn to her mother's funeral. Thus, while Jadine is constantly absorbed by the maternal problem, it is only in Éloé that she rises to the level of consciousness. Yet Jadine is still unaware of the significance of these ghost mothers, as she wonders “what did they even have in common, other than breasts.” She is unable to recognize the tension within her regarding the question of motherhood. Jadine flees Eloe, and in doing so, flees maternal apparitions, as well as the idea of ​​home. Ultimately, she also runs away from Son and the vulnerability she allowed herself to reveal to him. Jadine is completely incapable of giving herself to anyone, and this is what Ondine is referring to when she tells her niece: "First a girl must be a girl." She must learn this. And if she never learns to be a girl, she can never learn to be a woman. "(p. 281) Jadine disrespects her aunt and uncle, leaves Son, and flees the United States, all because she can't deal with the maternal problem. The line between dependence and independence is very thin, especially between parents and children, and this is the line that girls must cross. Jadine is too afraid to walk that line, and this fear guarantees that she will be perpetually alone, from Lucy's novel of the same name. Jamaica Kincaid, deals with many of the same issues as Jadine. She too is constantly running away from her mother Annie and rebelling against everything her mother represents. Annie is a constant presence in Lucy's life, despite the great distance between them, and. there is hardly a chapter in the novel in which Lucy's mother is not mentioned Lucy is aware that she is haunted by her family she calls them "the millstone around the neck of your life" and wonders; “if ever a day would pass without these people I had left behind, my own family, appearing before me in one way or another.” (Lucy p. 8) However, like Jadine,Lucy's attempt to escape the maternal is ineffective, because Annie still dominates her life. The first mention of Lucy's mother is associated with her letter to Lucy about the danger of the subways; even from thousands of miles away, Annie is able to strike fear into her daughter's heart and thus control her. Lucy's relationship with her mother is very complex; she has very ambivalent feelings towards him. She is cruel to her, but also loves her deeply; she hates her and admires her at the same time. Although Lucy constantly discusses her anger toward her mother and Annie's inadequacy and failure as a mother, she also peppers the novel with tender stories about their interactions. Lucy describes her mother's large hands and her love of plants; she tells us about Annie's lessons to Lucy about sex, men and abortion, and about sitting on Annie's lap as a child and stroking her face. Lucy also proudly shares the stories of her mother's life and her various triumphs. Despite Lucy's anger towards her mother, she still feels a deep connection to her and identifies with her in many ways. Yet for Lucy, what seems more powerful is her fury. She is angry with her mother for many reasons: her devotion to an unworthy husband, her failure to encourage Lucy as much as she encouraged Lucy's brothers, and the fact that "my mother would never have understood that my needs were perhaps more important than his wishes. » (p. 64) Lucy thus runs away from home and becomes an au pair, thus confirming her past assertion that "when I'm nineteen, I won't live at home unless I drop dead." (p. 112) Yet what Lucy chooses instead is to live and work in someone else's home, which creates some interesting conflicts for her. Lucy's relationship with Mariah, her employer, parallels this mother/daughter dynamic, and Lucy states that "Mariah was like a mother to me." (p. 110) Interestingly, Lucy writes: "The times I liked Mariah, it was because she reminded me of my mother. The times I didn't like Mariah, it was because she reminded me of my mother." (p. 58) She is therefore as ambivalent towards Mariah as towards her mother. And just as Lucy runs from her mother, she also runs from Mariah at the end of the novel. Lucy's rejection of her mother extends beyond her physical location; she rebels against the maternal in other ways, such as refusing to open her mother's letters and not returning home when she learns of her father's death. But this rebellion brings no fulfillment to Lucy, because like Jadine, by rejecting her mother so categorically, she also rejects herself. Even as a child, Lucy tells us that she was "a direct imitation" of her mother, and she says at one point in the novel that she was her mother. Hating your mother is therefore a form of self-loathing. And even though Lucy seems to hate her mother, she also longs for her, and she sadly remembers being "at the age when I could still touch my mother with ease" (p. 61) and at the time "when She loved me without reservation.” ". (p. 155) About her time with Mariah, she says "it was the kind of time I wish I could have spent with my mother, but, for some reason I don't clearly understand, it didn't. "wasn't allowed." (p. 60) Lucy is completely dominated by her mother's thoughts, so her attempt to reject the maternal backfired. Lucy's biggest problem is the extremeness of her thoughts and of her actions; she is unable to successfully negotiate the maternal issue because her reactions are too severe She states that in her past “I was my mother” (p. 90) whereas today “I am not. like my mother. She and I are not the same” (p. 123).everything in black and white terms; rather than recognizing the complexity of her relationship with her mother, she strictly categorizes it. This leaves no room for give and take for a successful girl. Unlike Jadine, however, Lucy does not reject her heritage and, in that sense, is at peace with who she is. She describes her mother as "divine" and "something from an ancient book" (p. 151), which creates a striking parallel with Jadine's "ancient properties." Although Lucy struggles with her mother on a daily basis, she embraces her mother's culture, which gives her some measure of fulfillment. Lucy's regret and shame are about her actions rather than her identity, and that's an important distinction. So there is more hope for Lucy than for Jadine, because while she may have behaved badly, she has not severed ties with her people. Indeed, in a letter to Lucy Annie writes "that she would always love me, that she would always be my mother, that my home would never be anywhere but with her." (p. 128) Lucy can fight against this - she burns this letter - but she cannot deny it Lucy leaves the novel crying with shame because of her wish "to love someone so much that I would die" (p. 164) Lucy loves. so much someone, but she threw away that love because she couldn't adequately create a space for herself. When his mother tells him "You can run away, but you can't escape." the fact that I am your mother, my blood flows in you, I carried you nine months in me", (p. 90) Lucy interprets this as a prison sentence. However, it is a prison sentence to which all human beings have to cope, and Lucy's handling of this leaves her empty and ashamed at the end of the novel. Indeed, she states: "I was now living a life that I had always wanted to live. lived apart from my family...The feeling of happiness, the feeling of fulfilled desire that I had thought would come with this situation was nowhere in me” (p. 158) By contrast. , at the end of Brown Girl, Brownstones, Selina Boyce is a confident, mature woman with high hopes, who has accepted her lifelong connection to her mother without allowing it to dominate her life. For this reason, Selina is the most successful of them. three characters capable of negotiating the complex maternal issue. While Selina struggles violently with her mother, she manages to emerge from this “war” a whole person, with happiness and fulfillment almost visible on the horizon. Like Annie, Silla is a powerful woman who inspires respect in her daughter. And like Lucy, Selina hates and adores her mother; she aspires to be like her in some ways, and despises her in others. Part of Selina's struggle has to do with her identity as the child of two very different children. parents: is she Deighton's Selina or Silla's Selina? During the first part of the novel, she strives to be Deighton's Selina. But later in life, after struggling with these issues for years, she is able to admit her connection with her mother and tells Silla, “I am really your child. » Indeed, her name, Selina, derives from the name “Silla”, and this is no coincidence. Although Selina resembles Deighton in some ways, she is essentially Silla's Selina: she is confident, defiant, articulate, and determined, and she refuses to capitulate to anyone or anything. She is also hardworking, passionate and strong; these are qualities she inherited primarily from her mother and which she embraces in herself. Silla imposes her value system on Selina and tries to make her daughter a faithful replica of herself. And Selina, like Lucy and Jadine, rebels against this; his behavior within the Association is a major element of this rebellion. Silla's desire to win.