The Revolt Of Mother Analysis

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Many individuals have a fear of living a “half-life” or a life “unlived.” This does not mean to never physically live. This means that people can go their entire lives without actually living. Their lives can be squandered by various actions and attitudes. There are many ways one can experience an “unlived life.” The authors Mary Wilkens Freeman, Henry James and Mark Twain illuminate three ways one can experience an “unlived life” in their writings. Freeman shows in “Revolt Mother” that selfishness toward your wife is a way one can experience an “unlived life.” Henry James shows in “The Beast in the Jungle” that fear of intimacy is a way one can experience an “unlived life.” Lastly, Mark Twain shows in “Letters from Earth” that ignorance is …show more content…
For years Father has continually put his own needs ahead of Mother. Both Mother’s and the children’s wants and needs are blatantly disregarded. At the end of the story, Father realizes how he has neglected his family and therefore wasted the majority of his years. Father’s self-centeredness leads to a great divide in the family. Mother tell the children, “you hadn’t ought to judge father, though. He can’t help it, ‘cause he don’t look at things jest the way we do” (Freeman 664pg). The inward focus of father gets so terrible mother is forced to confront him. Mother goes on to say, “Father, I want to know if you think it’s right. You’re lodgin’ your dumb beasts better than you are your own flesh an’ blood” (Freeman 666pg). Consequently, living a life of self-centeredness is one way to define and unlived …show more content…
John Marcher spends his life controlled by fear. As a result, He misses out on having a relationship with the love of his life. James writes, “It was vain to pretend she was an old friend, for all the communities were wanting, in spite of which it was an old friend that he saw she would have suited him” (James 480pg). furthermore, “This the companion of his vigil had at a given moment made out, and she had then offered him the chance to baffle his doom” (James 506pg). The opportunity was set before him. He had everything that he longed for. However, because of his fear, she would die before John could “baffle his doom.” Consequently, living a life of fear is one way to define and unlived