Ironing Their Clothes and Dusting by Julia Alvarez - Essay Example

The mother was someone who could not be disturbed while working and was unable to balance chores and her daughter’s needs. Similarly, in “Dusting,” the daughter makes it known that her mother was someone not to be bothered with while cleaning. As the child drew and wrote in the dust, instead of being playful with her, her mother only cleaned up after her. This was not a woman who was capable of finding fun or amusement in tedious tasks, which suggests that she probably saw her daughter as a nuisance while she tried to get the house cleaned.

Through the daughter, Alvarez also brings forth the realization that the mother is more or less a nobody, just another mother in a world of mothers and parents unwilling to bond with their child. “But I refused with every mark to be like her, anonymous.” Her mother, lacking the warmth and compassion of other mothers, lack an identity, which the author symbolizes through the wiping away of the girl’s name written in the dust.