Analysis of “Why I Make Sam Go to Church”

Analysis of “Why I Make Sam Go to Church” Chances are if you grew up in the south, then you most likely have been to a church service before. I remember as a kid getting the wakeup call every Sunday morning from my mom, “Get up and get dressed for church!” Even if I did not feel like going, she would drag me out of bed and make me go. Anne Lamott writes about the same thing in her essay “Why I Make Sam Go to Church.” Lamott wrote “Why I Make Sam Go to Church” in 1999 as part of a collection of autobiographical essays in a book called Traveling Mercies. My main reaction to this work was a positive one. I thought the essay was eye opening in a sense and it shows that everyone needs guidance and help from others sometimes.
In Lamott’s short story, Why I Make Sam Go to Church, she talks about the influence the church had on her life while going through single motherhood and raising her son. Of course she talks about the reasons she makes Sam go to church, it’s in the title, but she also talks about how regularly going to church has positively affected her and her son. Also how the other members of the congregation took her in as one of them without judging and basically supported her.
Sam opposes his mother most likely because he is a child and like other children he just wants to do what he wants to do. Lamott even says “What young boy would rather be in church on the weekends than hanging out with a friend?” (Lamott 99)
The main purpose for making Sam be present at church is said on page 100 “The main reason is to give him what I found in the world, which is to say a path and a little light to see by.” (Lamott 100) It isn’t hard to see here that Lamott just wants the best for her son and wants him to have what she grasped from the church. There are many supplementary reasons for requiring Sam attend church. These include not only the emotional support but also the financial support given to Lamott by the congregation. The financial support subsided after Anne