A_Focus_On_Mothers

A Focus On Mothers A Focus on Mothers Sweet Mystery, by Judith Paterson, Distant Son, by Norman McMillan, and My Mother’s Witness, a biography by Carolyn Haines, are all books that focus a great deal on a mother figure. That is to say that in each book the mother played a central role in the author’s life or, in the case of My Mother’s Witness, the mother played a central role in Peggy’s life, whom the book is written about. The mothers in these books; Emily, in Sweet Mystery, Lucille, in Distant Son, and Inez, in My Mother’s Witness, made such an impact on their children’s lives that the children have actually written, or have had someone else write, their own life stories, which heavily includes their mother’s role in each of their lives. Looking closely at each mother figure, there are several aspects that are very similar in each of their lives that the women handled in sometimes very different ways. Rearing children in a male dominated society, dealing with poverty, attitude toward the children, and attitude toward the children’s education are some of the aspects that lend themselves to comparison between the three mothers. Emily Paterson, Lucille McMillan, and Inez children, emily, inez, lucille, life, poverty, mother, judith, each, schooling, paterson, husband, mothers, way, very, love, alcohol, situation, seems, school, mother’s, family, even, different, because, although, women, toward, three, though, show, role, much, men, mcmillan