This narrator of this story is an eleven-year-old girl who is awaiting the arrival of her baby sister. The young girl had been given the responsibility of taking care of the house and her expecting mother. The story started with the girl knitting clothes for her baby sister.. The young girl had no choice but to do all the housework herself because the doctor had told her that her mother would be in a dangerous condition until the birth of the baby. She had to cook and clean all day. One day, she was about to make breakfast for her family and she began rummaging through cookbooks. She picked up a book called The Art of Cooking and Serving and began flipping through it. There was a picture of a woman on the front of the cookbook. In one picture, the woman was old-fashioned and in the other, she was modernized according to the girl. The young girl felt that she wanted to be liked the modernized woman whom everyone liked more. A few months later, her baby sister was born and even though, her mother had given birth, she was still very weak and unable to take care of the baby. The young girl was again given the responsibility to take care of her baby sister. As time passed, the baby was growing up and the girl was now thirteen. She was in highschool, but she never had any time for herself and was constantly looking after her two-year-old sister. The girl kept recalling the picture on the cookbook and how the old-fashioned woman was exhausted and sad, whereas the modern woman was healthy, pretty and happy. The young girl realized that she wanted to be like the modern one. She wanted to have fun and enjoy her teen years like her friends, not take care of her sister. One day, her mother was doing laundry, as the baby began to cry loudly. The mother told the girl to go check on the baby, but the girl refused and said it was not her baby, so why would she look after her. Following that, the teenager was given the freedom she had been eagerly waiting for.
In your opinion don't you think that the mother was a little hard on her own daughter , for telling her to do all the things that she should be doing. Don't you think for a 11 eleven year old girl these are too many responsibilities. Also in your opinion what do you think the theme of the story is?
ReplyDeleteYes, I think the mother was being hard on her daughter, but there was no other option because she was in a dangerous situation herself and couldn't do any housework. The eleven year old girl had no choice but to take upon all of the responsibilites. I think the theme of the story is to respect your elders and do as they say, but also take out some time for yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think just looking at pictures of women would help the young girl make that decision? People can fake smiles in photos and she doesn't know these people personally.
ReplyDeleteI think just looking at the pictures would help her make that decision because she's an eleven year old that seems to believe everything she sees. She doesn't know them personally, but she greatly looks up to them and believes that is how every woman should be.
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