My Mother Never Worked: Bonnie Smith-Yackel BBS 1st Year Patters for College Writing

Narrative Essay 1: My Mother Never Worked by Bonnie Smith-Yackel

About the Eaasyist 

Bonnie Smith-Yackel was born into a farm family in Willmar, Minnesota, in 1937. She began writing as a young homemaker in the early 1960s and for the next fourteen years published short stories, essays, and book reviews in such publications like Catholic Digest, Minnesoat Monthly etc.

Main Themes of the Essay

•   The main idea of the essay is to show how the government does not value the homemaker’s (housewife) work.

•      The narrator is the daughter of the homemaker who works on the farm.

•      Her mother recently passed away, and the daughter is struggling with receiving death benefits from the government. But the government does not value women’s work.

 

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Summary of the Essay

The writer, Bonnie Smith went to the social security office to claim her mother’s death benefits. The social security asked the writer about her mother’s information and placed her on hold for them to check their records; these were the records of her mother, Marth Jerabek smith. This whole essay is the memorization of her mother’s work while she holds the phone call.

As a mother, what she worked i.e., described in the essay. During this time, Bonny got to recall her mother and the things she did for her eight children and her husband. The writer remembers everything about her mother. Before she (the writer’s mother) was married to a farmer, her job was at the general store where she was the full-time manager. Her real work began after marriage. During the daytime, her mother used to go to the farm, clean the house, coined for the family, and ended the cleaning the house. She got into sewing rugs and mending clothes for her children.

It was clear that Martha Smith had sawn and planted in the garden even in her old age. She did the cleaning, milking, growing, cooking, sewing, etc. She raised eight children with adversity. Towards the end, she was in a car accident that paralyzed her waist down and she had to sit in a wheelchair for the remainder of her days. Like a determined person, she continued to work baking, ironing, sewing, and writing letters weekly. After recollecting everything about her mother, she got the response from the social security office that ‘her mother had never worked.’ She got shocked and upset in some way by the response claiming that the government never valued her mother’s efforts.

Comprehension (Samples Answers only)

a.      What kind of work did Martha Smith do while her children were growing up? List some of the chores she performed.

Martha worked on the farm raising livestock, tending to crops, carrying water, doing laundry by hand, sewing clothing for her children, cooking, and doing housework. These tasks were only a portion of the labour Martha performed over her lifetime.

b.     Why aren't Martha Smith survivors entitled to a death benefit when their mother died?

Martha Smith's survivors are not entitled to a death benefit when their mother died because Martha was not a "wage earner" and didn't work for an employer, her family is not entitled by law to a death benefit through social security.

c.      How does the government define work?

The government defines work as a task done by a husband.

Purpose and Audience (Samples Answers only)

a.      What point is the writer trying to make? Why do you suppose her thesis is never explicitly stated?

The author's whole point of the essay is to make the reader feel sympathy for her mother, because of the hardships she went through working on a farm while raising eight children, which leads us to believe she is deserving of the Social Security benefit check. Another point is general; even though women do so much work in their homes, they don't get any credit from our society.

b.     This essay appeared in Ms Magazine and other publications whose audiences are sympathetic to feminist goals. Could it just as easily have appeared in a magazine whose audience was not? Explain.

I think it could easily appear in a magazine whose audience was not sympathetic to feminist goals. I would say it would not be the most readable topic, and it probably would have a lot of arguments and critics after all.

c.      Smith-Yackel mentions relatively little about her father in this essay. How can you account for this?

She mentions little about her father in the essay because she is disappointed to hear that her mother never worked with the person on the phone. The author tried to show as many details about her mother's work as possible; Smith Yackel gains empathy throughout the essay for her mother by repeating the numerous jobs she had to do. This is to reinforce the message that a person, who spends their whole life tending to others, is told by society, that her work is not recognized and appreciated.

d.     This essay was first published in 1975. Do you think it is dated, or do you think the issues it raises are still relevant today?

The issues it raises are still relevant today because even now most people think the same way. Women's rights are still a controversial issue today in an equal partnership world.

Style and Structure (Samples Answers only)

a.      Is the essay's title effective? If so, why? If not, what alternate title can you suggest?

No, it is not effective. I would suggest "My Stay-at-home mother is a hard-working person."

b.     Smith-Yackel could have outlined her mother's life without framing it with the telephone conversation. Why do you think she includes this frame?

This is done to bring a sense of reality to the text and appeal to readers. Yackel also takes a full paragraph out of her mother's diary, to make an emotional connection between the reader and Yackel's mother. This also helps the readers directly relate to Yackel's mother by including dialogue that shows exactly how her mother is feeling.

c.      What strategies does Smith-Yackel use to indicate the passing of time in her narrative?

Yackel includes all the dates, especially the years, so the readers can recognize or even relate to the surrounding environment. Such as in 1931. Yackel's mother went through a drought, therefore people who had experienced such as this can relate to Yackel's mother's hardship.

d.     This narrative piles details one on top of another almost like a list. Why does the writer include so many details?

The author wants the readers to recognize, appreciate and even relate to her mother's work as she does. And not discard years of service and hardship towards her family, as Social Security did. For the same reason, she describes the smallest of the details from her mom's diary.

e.      In paragraphs 20 and 21 what is accomplished by the repetition of the word still?

All the hard times the author's mother had during that period, did not stop her to take care of her family. She continued to work hard even after all her kids grew up.

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