"Edward, Edward" (anonymous poem) and "Girl" (Jamaica Kincaid)

“Edward, Edward” (anonymous poem) and “Girl” (Jamaica Kincaid)

What do you find disturbing in these texts and why?

We expect mothers to be the most wonderful persons just because we portray them to be that way. However, in the poem “Edward, Edward”, by an anonymous write, and the short story “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, both portray mothers in a different sunlight which I found disturbing. The mothers were both portrayed as horrid individuals. In the poem “Edward, Edward”, the mother was portrayed as a wicked, insensible, cunning, conniving and unloving woman who persuaded her son to kill his own father. In the short story “Girl”, the mother is portrayed as a ‘nagging’, degrading, accusative and a pessimistic woman who steps over and beats down her daughter pitilessly and without remorse. Both of the writers go against how I portray mothers.
In the poem “Edward, Edward”, the writer portrayed a wicked, insensible, cunning, conniving and unloving mother. The mother was wicked because she persuaded her son to kill his father and it might have been to get the riches that were promised to her son. In the poem the writer does not tell us that she did but it could be clarified that she persuaded him to do so, for example line 17 through 20, “Your steed was old, and we have got more, Edward, Edward; Your steed was old, and we have got more, Some other evil ye fear O. she knew that Edward had killed his father because she knew that he lied to her the first three times when she questioned him about what was wrong. These four lines above shows the last question that she asked, when she said that hi steed was old and that they have got more and something else tormented him, it showed that she already knew the ‘dirt’ that her son had done but she just wanted him to confess in order to conclude her suspicions. Her pushing her son to tell her the truth suggested that she expected that he had killed his father, as if she was the one that was feeding the flames in the fire persuading her son to do so. The second thing that I found disturbing about Edward’s mother was that she was insensible and unloving. When she had found out that her son did such a terrible crime she acted as if it didn’t matter to her. If a mother heard that her son or child had murdered their father or even someone that would express a mixture of emotions that show that they are concerned and disappointed and that they care. Edward’s mother was anything but that and it was expressed in lines 49—52, “And what will ye leave to your own mother dear, Edward, Edward? And what will you leave to your dear mother? My dear son, now tell me, O.” Her son had just murdered his father and she is showing more concern about what part of her son’s riches she would receive, but before she asked her son about what she would get, she asked him about how his wife and children would fair and about his riches and what he would do now that he had committed a serious crime, but she only asked to make it seem as if she was remorseful and worried about the people around her when she was merely focused on what she would be receiving from him. She used the phrase “dear son” to make it seem as if she cared and loved him to sweeten his head but deep down she wasn’t sincere towards her son. Another thing that was disturbing was that Edward’s mother was cunning and conniving. This was expressed in the lines 55 and 56, “The curse of hell from me shall you bear, Such counsels you gave to me, O.” Reading in between these lines, the writer gives evidence that the mother persuaded Edward to commit the crime against his father when he said “Such counsels you gave me, O.”. The mother did not tell him so boldly to murder his father but she continued to tell him things that poisoned his mind against his father and so he probably got tired of hearing such things that he took matters into his own hands to make his mother happy, later on realizing what wrong he had done and seeing through her facade. The mother influenced Edward to do such a horrible thing because maybe she wanted the wealth that her son would receive from his father or maybe out of scorn for the man, even though the story did not say so, it highlighted all of the things that the mother wanted, and they were vanity and money from her son.
In the short story “Girl”, the writer portrayed a ‘nagging’, degrading, accusative and mortifying mother. The writer expressed the mother as a ‘nag’ by writing the story to show that she had all the say and the daughter only had two sentences in the story. The writer did not use any periods except for the one that ended the story just to express what kind of person the mother was, the story was a run on and there was no conversation going on between the mother and daughter. The mother was mainly talking at the daughter and not with her. The second thing that I found disturbing about this mother was that she was degrading and demeaning her daughter, the line that expressed this is, “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming;”. The mother in this story degrades her daughter and calls her a slut way too much times in the story. You don’t expect a mother to call her daughter ludicrous names and tries to tear down their child’s essence. The third thing I found disturbing was that the mother was so accusative, instead of asking her daughter about something she accuses her as if she is certain that the child does these things, for example, “don’t sing benna in Sunday school; but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school;”. The mother immediately indicts the situation on the daughter. And another thing I found disturbing is that the mother was so pessimistic and she was trying to teach her daughter a lot of sinful and wrong things. Things like how to be hypocritical to people, how to abort babies that she do not want, how to bully a man and how to fix a man if he does not love you in order to get him to love you. All of these things she teaches her young daughter and finds no fault in them.
In conclusion the writers go against how I portray mothers. In the poem “Edward, Edward” and the short story “Girl”, the mothers are horrid, wicked and ludicrous individuals. What mother in their right minds would influence her son to murder his own father, what mother would demean and degrade her daughter in such a way to make her feel worthless and inhumane; what mother does not care for their child’s well-being; what mother teaches their daughter evil and wicked ways. Truly it is only mothers who are corrupt in the mind and soul. From my point of view it seems that the writers were trying to go against what society expect, not only that but highlighted how some mothers are, showing their readers that mothers are human beings like ourselves and that they are not always the people we want them be or think they are. Not all mothers are good people but some are also bad ones. The poem and the story was intended for us to see that and open up our eyes to reality, no matter how horrid and disturbing it may be, that’s just how things are. However, they writers did a tremendous job with highlighting mothers in a different light.