Motherhood Lionel Shriver's We Need Essay

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Her letters to Franklin belie a thoughtful introspection that Franklin seems incapable of entirely. It is Franklin who is oblivious to the role of father. Eva is expected to take control of all nurturing activities in the family, leaving daddy to be playtime manager. Kevin likely loses respect for his father, who becomes so completely distant emotionally as to never assume an ounce of responsibility for his son's behavior. Eva, on the other hand, is like Atlas bearing the weight of the world on her shoulder. Kevin is serving time, but so too is Eva.

We Need to Talk About Kevin therefore highlights key feminist theories of motherhood. Motherhood has become the province of patriarchy, as Adrienne Rich points out in Of Woman Born. Midwives, roles fulfilled my females, have been steadily replaced by physicians, a role unfortunately filled primarily by men. When men are in control of women's bodies, they symbolically rape and steal the soul of the female.

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Motherhood ceases to become the fulfilling spiritual experience it might have been once in matriarchal societies, as Rich points out. Now, motherhood is a curse and a burden in the way that Eva experiences. Eva subconsciously knows that she cannot possibly derive personal fulfillment from motherhood and might have been much better off living a child free existence. It is even possible that her and Franklin might have enjoyed a lasting relationship had they not had children. But because females are expected to bear children as their duty to the patriarchal society, Eva conformed. She ceased her creative and entrepreneurial endeavors. She sacrificed her sanity and her dignity in order to conform to the roles proscribed to her gender. Rich and Shriver both spell out the perils and pitfalls of patriarchy by focusing on the way motherhood can be used to constrain women.

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