sing the little girl as a single mother during the Depression. Through stream of consciousness, she recalls all of the miserable childcare situations she was forced to leave Emily in since she had to work when there was work available to her. Now knowing the devastating physical and emotional effects these arrangements had on Emily, the mother is filled with regret, but it “still would have made no difference if [the mother] had known. It was the only place there was. It was the only way [Emily and her mother] could be together, the only way [the mother] could hold a job” (475). Years of physical distraction were then added to the primary years of physical separation. The mother had other children to tend to, other worries to tend to. She knows there had not been enough love and attention for her oldest child when she needed it the most. Now seeing Emily as her grown nineteen year old child, the mother feels it is too late to stop her daughter from living the limited life she, herself, had: “My wisdom came too late. She has much to her and probably little will come of it. She is a child of her age, of war, of fear” (480). The parental guilt displayed by the mother shows the reader the natural instincts of any parent. This mother is searching for an honest assessment of past behavior and its consequences and for an accurate understanding of the role of cultural necessity, which allows for individual responsibility. She recognizes that there are questions “for which there is no answers” and some causal relationships which cannot be deciphered. Still knowing she did everything for her child that was within the realms of her world, she feels the need to defend herself: “Why do I put that first? I do not even know if it matters, or if it explains anything” (474). By the end of the story, the mother’s thoughts drift back to the present and she sees a shy, struggling girl who has a gift for...
