Unit 8Housewifely Arts Megan Mayhew Bergman Additional Background Information What is this story about? One answer is simply that it is about love. Because of the protagonist’ s strong maternal love for her son, Ike, she worries about genetic weaknesses she might have passed on to him — “cancer genes, hay fever, high blood pressure, perhaps a fear of math ” , plus being undersized for his age making him an easy target for bullies. Being a single parent, she knows that she is all her son has. She takes care to shelter him from bad examples and possible harm. The desire to be a good mother, to help her child grow up happy, healthy, and productive is so intense that she is sometimes haunted by nightmares. The experience of parenting her child gradually makes the protagonist more aware of her relationship with her mother: Will you love me forever? I think to myself. Will you love me when I’ m old? If I go crazy? Will you be embarrassed by me? Avoid my calls? Wash dishes when you talk to me on the phone, roll your eyes, lay the receiver down next to the cat? These were exactly the things she did to her mother. Loving her son, she finally realizes how much her parents also loved her. Her father’ s love was easier to understand. He tried his best to give her opportunities in life, but when she failed in the year at a private college, which he had funded for her with considerable difficulty, he did not judge or reproach her. She loved her father, but she regarded her mother as cold and harsh and fought constantly with her, reacting like her former self, the rebellious teenager, being neither mature nor compassionate in looking after her mother in old age, understandin...
