Reading response - Essay Example

    Reading Response Introduction This reading highlights the suffering of several women through reproductive and family histories, subjective commentaries, and employment and migration histories. Also, it takes into account, interviews, literature reviews, observations, and the study of documents. In addition, it has highly personal, subjective and emotional accounts across the author’s interaction with the members of the society. This essay is a perspective on, and critical analysis of the authors idea based on the reading’s core theme of association between a mother’s capacity to show maternal affection and poverty and chronic child loss.

The author suggests that when situations of high infant mortality and high fertility exist, the passing away of a young one is the custom for poor households. Mothers do not feel distressed when a frail infant dies, and motherly acceptance of child death may put at risk the life of other children (Scheper-Hughes 324). This illustrates that mothers only invest in children who they expect to survive, detach themselves psychologically from susceptible children and withdraw care and affection. This notion rebuffs contemporary research on the mother-child relation and the view that motherly love is a universal occurrence.

The author refers to this as the modern bourgeois view.In the community, it is perceived that motherly love is meaningful and priceless and that the mother’s kindness cannot be repaid. Nonetheless, we cannot be assuming the same thing about women who anticipate and wish for their baby’s demise. It is even more difficult to presume that any woman would want a terrible thing to happen to her young one. The account of the attitude towards child mortality is distressing. This is a demonstration of human adaptability, though not the ecstatic of such demonstrations.

A number of communities find motherly love to be stout that it cannot be influenced by anything.A genuine mother can never allow her child or children to pass on without a fight. This stance differentiates mothers from other regular individuals in a way. Nevertheless, it essential to understand mothers are humans first, like the rest of the people. The quality of a person’s life is largely dependent on issues beyond his control or a society. Resources may be the most vital of issues. These make motherly love subject to the accessibility of resources in the society.

Over a period, a community that does not have adequate resources must change its view to the situation. Born Jesus is an example of such an occurrence (Scheper-Hughes 324). The reading depicts mothers as indifferent to the deaths of their children. It seems like these children are classified as those born destined to die and others destined to live. It is a lucky thing, and an astounding pleasure for a child to survive past the first days of the month. My ethical view is that these mothers have no affection and care for their children.

Nonetheless, there is the realization that motherly love can be different on the basis of economic constraints. It may not be right to presuppose that these women are emotionless and cold. They may be socialized this way, or they may be forced to surrender the care giving nature (Scheper-Hughes 327).ConclusionThe reading is controversial, compassionate, engrossing, and crusading. What individuals presume to be indifferent towards child death, from their view, is not correct. It is proof of a drastically different view of reality and life that is imposed on a society.

These women have acclimatized a positive notion of child death (Scheper-Hughes 329). It is not fortunate but raises hopes.Work CitedScheper-Hughes, N. Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. California: University of California Press, 1993. Print.