To a Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan - Essay Example

To a Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan Through her creation of the poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home”, Linda Pastan briefly yet effectively conveys the essential moments of youth when tender years are securely nurtured in the loving ways of motherhood. In a narrative structure, Pastan renders the first person speaker in the piece assume role of a mother whose times with a grownup child are recollected from the early youth with equivalent tones of joy and sadness. Personally, reading “To a Daughter Leaving Home” has brought me to a journey of thoughts along the bittersweet memories with my own mother who, like the main character in the poem, has since endured hardships due to my stubbornness even to this point in time. It appears that all throughout the piece, the mother has managed to keep a constant guidance of her daughter beginning when the daughter was only eight and had to be instructed with the basics of riding a bicycle. Putting myself in the daughter’s shoe at this stage, I could particularly recall times of youth when I felt helpless like most other children of that age who could barely tie their shoelace nor feed themselves properly without spills or messy plates. Perhaps, I would never be able to express it the manner I should but back in those times, just like the little girl who knew not how to ride the bike by herself, I must admit being reminded of childhood days when I always needed mom’s help in several things. For one, I would not have survived my nerves for fear of heights on my first Ferris Wheel experience had she not locked me tight in her arms and tucked me onto her chest until I felt safe and warm enough. As the other in the story confesses the part “beside you / as you wobbled away / on two round wheels”, I instantly remembered having conquered such fear the moment I sensed much calmness and peace in her well-being which gave me the strength to believe in courage no matter how high up I could get. When the mother further tells with pride and awe “my own mouth rounding / in surprise when you pulled / ahead down the curved / path of the park”, she resembles my mother’s exaggerated attitude of showing how proud she was of me despite my naughty behavior. Mom would be proud and boast off even the tiniest details of my nonsensical tasks for as long as it seemed a sign of maturity. Just as how Pastan’s leading character treats her small daughter who looks bound to grow up fast, my mother similarly embodies that type whose source of happiness reflects in her unconditional love of me and my sibling. Back then, this was something anyone could readily see in the way by which mom occurred to possess unfailing energies whenever it came to providing her children with the most satisfying care we could amply and uniquely favor. Innocence and wonder in a child altogether fade as youth progresses in time through acquisition of more complex knowledge with age and experience. This truth is evident in the lines where Pastan holds the speaker to allude the abrupt passing of time, stating in transition “I kept waiting / for the thud / of your crash as I / sprinted to catch up, / while you grew / smaller, more breakable / with distance.” There emerges in this scenario some painful remembrances of struggles which the mother has to bear in order to keep up with her willful duty of continuously watching over her daughter. As characterized by the narrator, the grownup child seemingly loses her simple path in exchange for one which the older woman could not quite follow with ease. Here, I can perceive much of myself in the daughter that even if the storyteller communicates no exact description of her personality or behavior, through the speaker’s sentiment and mood in the poem, I am certain that the child’s adulthood is, to that extent, going through a crisis of being profoundly challenged by external forces somewhere as that originating form her society. By using the phrases “catch up” and “grew smaller”, Pastan illustrates the painstaking encounters of a mother who prefers to maintain her status or the way she is to her daughter though she is fully aware as well that it takes serious coping with an adult child who has unlearned the former fashion and embraces the ways of the world instead. Growing up entails a lot of peer pressure and demands to conform to norms and standards beyond the ones already established within the family and I was especially influenced by the common act of complying with societal trends during my adolescent years. I frequently clashed with mom on matters I wanted to take full control of, not realizing how hard and excruciating it must have been for her to witness my shift of character and values from good to worse. Toward the poem’s end, the mother speaker divulges her new observation of the child all grown with “pumping, pumping / for your life, screaming / with laughter” and I can imagine myself in reality under this circumstance where I am inclined to think that I know more than my mom does for while she stays at home, I gain further exposure in the world outside. Nevertheless, as my learning increases as such, I gradually and unconsciously neglect the simple joys of living like what the daughter in the narrative has started to leave behind upon yielding to the fresh elements of modern self-discovery. Because the daughter finally comes to achieve things by herself other than the petty skill to ride a bicycle which she was taught at eight her mother, though without regret, gladly accepts the truth of nature and grants her independence as the latter figuratively expresses “the hair flapping / behind you like a / handkerchief waving / goodbye” to indicate acknowledgment of freedom of a child she would not be able to keep for life. This portion of Pastan’s work got me teary-eyed, remembering all my acts of disobedience toward my mother every time I opted to have things my way despite the fact that in life, she still generally knows best. In conclusion, overall reading of Pastan’s “To a Daughter Leaving Home” has made me discern better the essence of motherhood. It turns out that mothers are the most thoughtful and reliable individuals on earth who can always, without fail, fulfill a child’s need of understanding and direction until the prime of youth is reached and the child can perform functions solely for himself or herself. At this point, however, one must not abandon the happy memories brought by the good old tradition of playing while learning from a mother who loves to teach and love us for eternity. Read More