The Mother Gwendolyn Brooks Analysis

When thinking of personal experiences, “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks touches on the emotional topic of abortion. Even though this poem was published decades ago, it can still be seen very relevant to this day. Accepting abortion and the outcome can indeed be a challenging task for many, while others seem to adapt to it without much of a problem. Gwendolyn Brooks’ writing lets us take a look at the mothers view point of abortion and how a mother responds to her new situation. Throughout the poem, the speaker shows signs of grieving concern of the topic of abortion and its outcomes by presenting emotions of regret and memories, shame and guilt, and contradicting herself to almost justify what she has done.

In the beginning, the speaker says a brief statement of her feelings about abortion, “Abortions will not let you forget, You remember the children you got that you did not get” (lines 1-2). These first two lines explain how her children will never realize certain accomplishments in life, this also shows a mother who is unable to forget the dramatic events that have emotionally scarred her. The speaker later on says,

This part in the poem seems kind of cynical because she is saying that she can hear the voices of the children she has killed and it’s a dark and twisty way to show the guilt that she has for having so many abortions or even just aborting her first child. During the time that this poem was written in 1945, abortions were illegal so it can be assumed that these abortions could be self-inflicted for various reasons (Abortion Surveillance). The speaker could have been raped or the child would have been born out of wedlock, this could be the shame that she feels about having the abortions along with killing so many children since it can be assumed that she had more than one