Author/Mother Relationships

Author/Mother Relationships It is very important to have a good relationship with at least one of your parents. You need to be able to share memories of your childhood with the people who raised you. I believe that sharing childhood stories with your parents gives you a connection to a relationship based on trust, emotion and sincerity. In Tony Ardizzone’s short story “My Mother’s Stories,” Tony tells the reader of his relationship with his mother while she is very sick in the hospital. Throughout the story Tony talks about childhood memories with his mother and he also describes the stories that she is telling to him. I think that through his memories and their stories together the reader is able to imagine and relate to the relationship between Tony and his mother, Mary. We first begin to see the feelings between the author and his mother at the end of the fourth paragraph of the story. Talking about his mother’s stories, he says “For now the sounds and pictures are my sounds and pictures. Her memory, my memory.” (Ardizzone, 117) You can tell from these sentences that Tony feels very connected to the memories that he shares with his mother. Throughout the story, his mother tells Tony stories about her wedding day, the births of all her children, and other stories from when they were younger. Tony also recalls several memories he has with his family and his mother. It seems like these are events that he remembers often but seems to recall more clearly now that it is nearing the end of his mother’s life. I think it means a lot that his mother felt like she should share these things with her children. It shows that Tony and his mother are very comfortable with each other. Towards the end of the story Tony describes a time from when he was younger. Mary protects her children from seeing a very sick dog get put down by a police officer. Tony says “We try to look out the windows too, but she pushes the five of us away. No, she says. I don’t want

Cited: Ardizzone, Tony. “My Mother’s Stories.” New Worlds of Literature. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.