Mothering modes: analyzing mother roles in novels by twentieth-century United States women writers

 
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Table of Contents 
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..ii 
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………v 
Introduction: Mothering Modes: A Survey of the Different Perspectives 
on Mothering…………………………...………………………………….1 
Feminist Perspectives on Mothering……………………………...6 
Feminist Women of Color Perspectives on Mothering………….14 
Historical-Political Perspectives on Mothering………………….18 
Sociological and Psychological Perspectives on Mothering…….23 
Literary 
Perspectives 
on 
Mothering: An Outline of Chapters…..27 
Chapter 
1 
Mothering as Dilemma in Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina
and Toni Morrison’s Beloved….…….……….………………………….32
2 
Mothering as Difficulty in Dorothy West’s The Wedding and Toni 
Morrison’s Song of Solomon.……………………………………..……..83
3 
Mothering Understood in Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife and 
Christina García’s Dreaming in Cuban………………….……………..121 
4 
Mothering as Transition in Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
and Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones……………….………158 
Conclusion: Mothering in Retrospect…..…………………..……………………….…191 
Notes……………………………………………………………………………………206 
Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….209 
Vita……………………………………………………………………………………...218
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Abstract 
For this dissertation, the following novels have been chosen as examples of the 
many issues that are involved in mothering in United States society: Chapter 1: Dorothy 
Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Chapter 2: Toni 
Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Dorothy West’s The Wedding, Chapter 3: Amy Tan’s 
The Kitchen God’s Wife and Christina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, and Chapter 4:
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones. 
For this study, the term “mothering” is specifically related to the rearing of children by 
the female parent. Rearing is defined as the bringing up of a child to maturity and at least 
to the legal age of eighteen. In “Mothers at Work: Representations of Maternal Practice 
in Literature” (2000), Elizabeth Bourque Johnson examines the following definition of 
mothering: “Mothering is a job, a kind of work. The word mother may also indicate a 
relationship or a title or a way of caring, but primarily a mother is a worker, a person who 
takes responsibility for the care and development of a child” (22). In this dissertation, I 
argue that oppressive circumstances in the examples in these novels create similar coping 
strategies for the mother characters, especially when mothering daughters. In addition 
and contrary to what some might believe, those coping strategies are not confined 
exclusively to particular cultural groups. The chapters of this study show how different 
mothers who rear children under different negative circumstances may benefit from 
similar coping strategies, and they examine these coping strategies from the least to the 
greatest examples of their success. 
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