Kristin Hunter's short story "Mom Luby and the Social Worker" is quite an
interesting piece of writing that examines a day in the life of Mom Luby, an elderly
woman who seeks help from the Social Welfare so that she can better care for her
two foster children, Elijah and Puddin and Miss Rushmore, a social worker
assigned to assess Elijah and Puddin's living conditions. Throughout the story we
can see how the author uses humor and satire to comment on the welfare system
and we can also see the nature of irony displayed throughout the story.
In the story the author uses satire and humor to comment on the welfare system
in the story. The inefficiency of bureaucratic procedures is satirized in this story.
The humorous incident is the encounter with a social worker named Miss
Rushmore. Miss Rushmore enters the world of Mom Luby in order to investigate
the living conditions of Elijah and Pudding, after Mom Ruby makes a request for
state aid. Her very dress is stereotypical of office workers of a bureaucratic agency
and her reactions to Mom Luby's probing questions like "Do you have a man?" are
funny. What is humorous is that by the end of the story Miss Rushmore's apparent
composure is wiped dispelled and she appears disheveled and bedraggled after she
gets a real dose of what efficiency is to Mom Luby. She says Mom Luby "got more
done in two hours then she could do in two years." This statement is also statistical
and pokes fun at the Social Welfare System of America.
On the other hand, the nature of the irony in this short story is to signal a
difference between the appearance of things and reality. The great irony in this
story is that an elderly, impoverished woman is able to care for two young children
better than the State agency that is tasked with doing so. This is due to the fact that
she can accomplish more for them in two hours than the agency's most driven
agent can in two years.
Mom Luby and the Social Worker is therefore an interesting story because it
points out the flaws in a system and shows the efficiency of that system to carry
out a job it was particularly designed to do. The system is challenged by an older
woman who speakeasy to make ends meet and who is an uncertified herbal doctor,
preacher and has two children to look after. This contrast is hilarious because it
causes the reader to condemn the system and continue with their life without the
hassle of state aid. "We'll do just fine," Mom Luby says.