The poem “The Mother” Gwendolyn Brooks takes on a unique perspective of a mother talking to her aborted children. speaker’s tone is ambiguous towards the abortions “ Or rather, or instead,/You were never made.\But that too, I am afraid,/Is faulty…”. It appears as though she regrets having to kill the children she never had, but is glad that she did not have them. Also what drew my attention is the line “The singers and workers that never handled the air.” This implies that her children would have been limited in their professions because of the world that they would be born in- a world of limited opportunities for Africa-American girls (singers) and boys (workers).
This poem takes on a tone of a confessional self-justification. Brooks tells the reader that no matter what every woman who has had an abortion still remembers every single one; having one does not mean forgetting and moving on. The Mother (Brooks) is haunted by the possibilities of having those children and how she would have felt and what they missed by not being born. In this sense Brooks shows her humanity even though she has committed a murderous act.
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Well, be careful of passing judgement ("murderous act"), since the poem does not do that. Brooks' persona poem here let's us hear, in as full a mannner as possible, with all is ambiguities, doubts, and conflicts, the voice of a particular demographic; the speaker at once indicts society for her plight, but does not use that to excuse herself. Also, there is not imagery to suggest that the speaker is "glad" not to have had the children. The opening line is teh emotional touchstone. It is interesting to read Brooks and Hughes together, since they deal with a similar demographic, though Brooks is the harder-edged of the two...
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