USLH Close Reading: Mother by Grace Paley
Close Reading of Mother
The title of the story “Mother” suggests that this story will be about a mother and/or a relationship with a mother. Throughout the story, the mother is continually referred to as she and her; her name is never once mentioned in the story, and the narrator always remains as I; the narrator’s name is never mentioned either. The lack of personal identification, through names, might suggest that there is a distance, or if you will, a lack of closeness or connection, between the characters.
One of the first things I notice in this story is the repetition of the words door and doorway. The words are used seven times in the story. The first time the word is introduced is in the title of the song that creates a sense of nostalgia for the narrator. “I have often longed to see my mother in the doorway” immediately evokes a sense of distance between the mother and the narrator. The use of the word longed implies that the speaker misses her mother and feels a strong pull toward her or her memory. To long means “to have a strong desire or yearning for somebody or something, especially somebody or something unattainable or not within immediate reach” i which makes me think the mother is deceased.
“As a matter of fact, she did stand frequently in various doorways looking at me” and “Another time she stood in the doorway of my room” and “At the door of the kitchen she said” are all followed by examples of parenting advice or concern. It seems that much of the mother’s parenting occurred in doorways. I wonder if there is some symbolic meaning to the doorway; it’s as if the mother is neither in nor out; she is merely in between. Literally, she is between rooms, but it seems that she is also somewhat in and out of, or in between her own life. Her placement in the doorways suggests a distance between the mother and the daughter; standing in the doorway puts her in close proximity to her daughter, but she is never in the room with her.
“She had begun her worried preparations for death” is a clue that the mother will die, and this is confirmed in the simple sentence that serves as a paragraph “Then she died.” The one sentence paragraph is simple, direct, profound, final. Little or no emotion is evoked in this one sentence despite the content. What does this suggest about how she feels about her mother’s death? The tone seems detached; the longing for her suggests that she misses her, but all the memories she recalls seem to reinforce the idea that they were detached.
“Naturally, for the rest of my life I longed to see her, not only in doorways, in a great number of places—the dining room with my aunts, at the window looking up and down the block, in the country garden among zinnias and marigolds, in the living room with my father” makes me wonder if these were places that the mother actually was when she was alive, or if the daughter wishes that her mother would have been in those places. The paragraph that follows illustrates a memory of her parents sitting together in the living room listening to music, so it would seem that the mother was in those places. The following paragraph consists of the one line, “I wish I could see her in the doorway of the living room.” Once again, the mother is in the doorway. Why the one reference to other places and then the added reference to the doorway? Are these the places where she lived?
Do they tell us something about how she lived? Are these intended to suggest that her life was more complete than either the daughter or father recognized? Do they not fully appreciate her and the life she lived? Does the daughter prefer the doorway? The scene that follows this line suggests that there is a lack of appreciation for the mother when she is in the living room, so perhaps the daughter prefers her in the doorway?

USLH Close Reading: Mother by Grace Paley
The final paragraphs describe a would-be interaction between her parents with the mother asking the father to talk to her. The word talk is used six times in the last two paragraphs. When the mother asks the father to talk to her, the word carries a kind and gentle connotation, suggesting a connection between the two. When the father repeats the word four times while describing his day in the clinic, the tone suggests that talk is problematic (especially considering it is preceded by “All sick.” The father does not seem to consider talking as a means of intimacy but rather as something that is contaminated.
The interaction between the mother and the father also suggests that there was little compassion or understanding between the two. The father just wants her to listen to the music; he wants to be left alone. This is in stark contrast to the memory that is evoked with the parents sitting in the living room. The doorway again leaves the mother isolated; the memory in the living rooms creates of tone of fondness and happiness; success and inclusion.
The first paragraph that recalls a memory of the interaction between the parents has a lot of parallel structure in the sentences: They sat, they were, they looked and “They’d just…” or “he had just,” or “she’d just.” The parallel structure creates a rhythm and builds intensity and creates a calm, inviting tone, perhaps to suggest that there was once a sense of intimacy between the two.
The word just is used four times in the paragraph, furthering the parallel structure. If just is defined as “a very short time ago” ii then the repetition of the word might suggest that it wasn’t so long ago that the mother and father were close and working hard to achieve their dream. The culmination of ideas that follow just: “come over on the boat, first English words, !00 percent correct, quit the shop” shows the success of the couple; they are immigrants who have achieved the American dream. The one time in the story she is physically in a room rather than in a doorway (between rooms), there seems to be a sense of belonging, involvement, and success; a sense of life.
Is her entrance into America another doorway that she stands in? Did she ever fully enter this new world and embrace this success? Or was she relegated to live between worlds, never fully understood or appreciated as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, as an immigrant? Is the doorway a metaphor for death; she was always on the threshold of dying, both literally and metaphorically? i Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ii Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.