e. Choose a quote from the reading and share your critical thinking in response.
"My going to such a place was part of my mother's not so secret plan to change my character, which she was worried was becoming too much like hers" Page 12
This quote from the Dialog, "Coming Home Again" really reached out to me because it made me feel for the mother a little bit. It takes a lot of modesty to admit flaws in your own character, and it also shows love when your worried about your son even becoming you. I look up to that kind of humble, non-self interested act. I hear a lot about parents sending their children to places so that they can BECOME more like their parents, but I have never heard it this way. It makes me wonder what kind of mistakes the mother has made, and why she would not want her son to face them. As I read on I notice the author, or the son of the mother, notes that she had already been introduced to "sloth and vanity". This could be hinting that his mother has the characteristics of sloth and vanity, and that she is afraid of her son becoming like her. From the beginning I can see how she ties in sloth with the fact her mother is constrained to an electronic pump, but she can't help that at all.
The author is incredibly clever, by figuring out what his mom was thinking. The good thing is that it worked. The school he went to did change his character. "She was right of course, and while i was there I would falter more than a few times, academically and otherwise." This meant that the mother thought if she sent her son to a tough school, it would keep him from becoming vain and a sloth. He described the school as "proving his mettle" or courage and strength.
Hi Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the mother's humility is refreshing and uncommon. The narrator's mother is a bit of a mystery, to us and the narrator. We learn very little about her, and we're left to wonder about her character.
The narrator is male. I considered asking everyone for their perspective on the narrator's gender, specifically which gender they thought he was. It isn't until you read further into his story that it's even mentioned.
Lauren
Hi Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if the mom was sloth or anything like it but as a mom I know that when you become a parent you think of yourself as a role module for your kid and most of the time parents are not satisfied. Being parent is one of the hardest thing if somebody wants to do it correctly. I am trying very hard to be a good role module for my daughter but lots of times I can not succeed and there is nothing that I can do, at least I know I did my best, so I wonder if the mom in our story had the same feelings.
I think she sent her son away to boarding school because she wanted her son to have a better future. Remember in the story his mother wanted him to call the bank, because the mother didn't know what to say. I think she didn't want that kind of outcome for her son. I don't think that the mother did something bad in her past, I just think she wanted a better out come for her only son.
ReplyDeleteHi Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI think by saying that Lee had already been introduced to "sloth and vanity," it is to show that his mother apparently stopped with everything of her own when she married his father. From reading the story, I don't see his mother as having given in to sloth or vanity, she just sacrificed her personal life to ensure her family would have a wonderful home life. Lee's mother just wanted him to make something of himself instead of being a stay at home husband for the woman he marries.