Image of a Mother

The speaker in Gina Valdes’ poem “My Mother Sews Blouses” is an offspring, a boy or girl, who is speaking of his/ her mother’s unfair job as an example of a low-income social class group. Through the mother’s job environment, the reader understands the working class that she belongs to. The speaker conveys the feature of the mother, her determination to face the problems. In fact, the mother’s job condition is a pretext to narrate a worker community. To further illustrate this short poem with a modern form, I will be analyzing the poem by using formalist criticism. Through the speaker, Valdes uses imagery, symbols, content, and form to illustrate the mother’s plight as an undocumented manual laborer in a worker group.

The mother’s unjust job is an example of a worker group set in a fabric factory in the first stanza by the speaker. The title and the opening line suggest that the mother is employed in “My Mother Sews Blouses” (1), and then the reader is sure that she is a woman laborer with a low-level wage “for a dollar a piece” (2). This low wage illustrates her ill-fated situation in society as an undocumented worker. Not only the mother but a group of workers in the same position, illegal workers, are working under the table. “They must be working on” (3). They are working in an inappropriate factory because “her fingers sliding on/ her eyelids” (5-6) shows the air is still and the lint of fabrics hurts their eyes. Therefore, the mother and the other workers have eye problems and are sliding their eyelids.

The speaker also reinforces the mother’s low social class by imagining the unconventional treatment of her eyes by the oculist. The unhealthy job environment has affected the mother’s eyes. n a flashback, the mother seemed to have a temporary cure for her eye problem “Six months ago she went/ to the old oculist …” (7-8). The oculist method and the material he uses for treatment, just a tiny knife for removing the lint from her eyes, again stresses the mother’s unfair position. The mother does not have any other choice because of her poverty. The peak of her problems comes to a head when the reader discovers that the treatment does not cure her eyes; it adds a new problem. For a short time, she is happy because her eyes “…were bright and/ Clear for a few months” (15-16), but “She’s blinking now” (17). The doctor uses no anesthetic or numbing medicine, just a tiny knife for cleaning her eyes. The mother is poor and does not have enough money to pay for a suitable doctor. In other words, she does not have another choice. Because of poverty, the mother has to go to the doctor, who is unclear whether he is a doctor or not. Despite many issues, such as low income, the mother does not lose hope, and she wants to develop her social status, “talking about night/ school” (18-19). In fact, the mother does not accept this destiny and wants to improve her life, maybe because she is trying to be a good role model for her kid, the speaker. Although these verses give a tone of hope in the poem, in real life, there is a low percentage of workers that can improve their lives.

Furthermore, the speaker uses the symbolism and irony, both figures of speech, freshly to connect to the mother’s plight and other undocumented workers. The black color connotated to death or destruction. The word “again” states that the disastrous event had happened before, and now they are sewing black cloth again for survivors. The black lint in the mother’s eyes can be a symbol of the worker’s pain and misery. The eyes, one of the most important organs, are the symbol of wisdom, as ancient Egyptians exaggerated their size to show their importance in their carvings. Now, a woman laborer’s eyes are at the doctor’s mercy. A knife, which can be a doctor’s tool and cure, its role in the poem is ambiguous. It does not help the mother because “She is blinking now” (17). It seems the knife is an instrument to distort the worker’s eyes, a symbol of sight and rationality. The irony, as well as symbolism, is in service of the poem when the speaker says the old oculist “knows all about/ eyes…” (9-10). The words in the quotation mark express the irony. The old doctor knows everything about eyes, but just with a tiny knife treats the poor mother’s eyes. It seems the oculist is a nickname that the workers have given to a person who has a little bit more general information about the illness. The symbols and irony beautifully match the poverty and position of the worker mother.

Moreover, the chosen form by the speaker does not have a traditional style with rhyme schemes, rhythm, and meter; instead, it has a modern structure in harmony with the concept of the presence of a woman laborer in society. It is an open form with three stanzas that use lines of varying length and avoids prescribed patterns of rhyme. Instead, the speaker uses a series of words with similar sounds in each stanza that calls attention to the feeling and gives tone to the poem. That makes a certain rhyme and creates pleasure for the reader. These words, for instance, in the first, second, and third stanzas respectively are: mother, dollar, working, sliding, on, on/ went, about, out, out/ bright, night, blinking, and talking. The presence of the alliteration, the repetition of consonant sound “s” in words like “sews, sliding, six, scraped,” and the sound “z” in words like “blouses, fingers, eyelids, eyes, she’s” are creating a special rhythm throughout the poem that reminds the reader of the sounds of scissors and the continuous rotation of the sewing machine. The contraction of rhyme, rhythm, irony, and symbolism is in the service of the poem to make a concept and image of the low-wage worker class.

The mother’s misery as a manual worker in the poem can be considered an example of a worker in society. In fact, the poem is not just the narration of a poor mother. It is the image of undocumented workers with a low-wage and unhealthy job conditions that put their health at risk. Nevertheless, the poem closes with the mother’s dream or goal to return to school and improve her life. It refers to a common dream for all miserly people who do not want to accept their destiny and try to improve their lives because life is always a big challenge.

Works Cited

Valdes, Gina. “My Mother Sews Blouses.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth

McMahan et al. 11^th ed. Pearson, 2018. Print.