Mary Clearman Blew’s essay, “The Unwanted Child” shows Blew’s thoughts about having a child through her mother’s experience and mother-in-law’s opinion. Blew does this by using her mother as a guide of the essay. Readers can identify that Blew’s mother is “the unwanted child” along with her unborn child. “The Unwanted Child” uses dialogue between Blew’s mother and her to show that her grandmother did not want her mother to be born. The essay switches from present and past tense to put the reader in the moment and show how her mother treats her in the past. The essay starts in first person then slips into third person at the end. By using these techniques, Blew expresses to the readers how she feels about her own unborn child through her mother’s…show more content… Throughout the essay, the author changes back and forth from present tense to past tense. Blew says, “After I get dressed, he says, ‘I’ll want to see you again in a month, Mommy.’ If he calls me Mommy again, I will break his glasses and grind them in his face, grand them until he has no face” (Blew 43). Blew starts off her essay in first person point of view and present tense to put the reader in that moment; the reader can get a sense of how she in feeling at that time the doctor gives her the title of a mother. After this scene, the essay frequently switches back and forth its tenses from present to past. Blew says, “My mother was an unwanted child. [. . .] [M]y mother dwelt on the motives behind the darkest family impulses. ‘Ma never should have had me. It was her own fault. She never should have had me if she didn’t want me,’ [my mom said]” (Blew 47). In this scene, Blew switches to past tense. Readers can probably suggest that Blew is trying to understand why she doesn’t want her unborn child by grasping why her grandmother didn’t want her own…show more content… Blew tells how her mother always brings up her past experiences with her grandmother to show that her mother is “the unwanted child” which correlates to how Blew feels about her own unborn baby. Blew includes her mother, she says, “‘I wonder if she even realizes she wouldn’t even have any grandchildren if I hadn’t got married and had kids! Some people should never have kids! Some people should never get married” (49). In this portion, Blew includes her mother and uses her as guidance for her essay to show that maybe she shouldn’t have her unborn child because she want it just like her grandmother didn’t want her mother. Later, Blew says, “With a child’s logic, I thought she was talking about me. I thought I was responsible for her anger” (49). Through observing her mother’s as “the unwanted child,” Blew shows the readers her thoughts about having her unborn baby. Readers may imply that she does not want her child to grow up knowing she didn’t want him because he might start to feel like her mother.
At the end of the essay, “The Unwanted Child” the readers get a sense of how Mary Clearman Blew feels about having her unborn son. It seems that Blew feels that maybe she shouldn’t have her child. She leaves the readers hanging in the end because she doesn’t reveal if she keeps her baby or not. By using all these techniques, Blew helps the reader understand her situation better and get an ideal of what her ultimate
