In Search of Mama Dick: Where Are The Mothers In Literature?

In my “Major Authors: Women Writers from 1900 to 1950” class last Tuesday morning the professor raised an important question: Where, in any major works of fiction (particularly American fiction) were mothers? After much deliberation, awkward silence and head scratching; the class concluded that mothers were notoriously absent from major works of literature. Amazingly, the one common denominator of human existence is as rare as a unicorn in representations of human existence. Why, then, are mothers just as elusive as giant white whales in literature? Could it be that they are greatly undervalued and found to be just as interesting as say, a rock? With a handy rubric, let us see if we can find the mythical creature known as Mama Dick.

Grab your favorite novel. Is it Major? (i.e. in the ‘canon’? If not, place it back on the shelf and grab another. Sorry Kids, no Twilight or Danielle Steele here.) Also, acquire a sheet of paper and a pen with god speed, sailor!

Without any further ado, let us hop on board our proud ship and harpoon us a matriarch.

Section 1: The Protagonist’s Mother

Does the protagonist have a mother?

Yes (+20) No (0)

Is she named?

Yes (+ 20) No (-20)

Is she dead before the book even begins, or die within the protagonist’s depressing recollection of their childhood? (generally of childbirth, T.B. or other weak lady illnesses.)

Yes (-15) No (+ 15)

If she is alive while the protagonist lives as an adult, is she old, sickly, widowed and 5 states/counties/countries away?

Yes (-15) No (+ 15)

Does she serve any purpose aside from being the citation that proves our good protagonist did not spring out of the earth?

Yes (0) No (-20)

Is she some kind of creepy Oedipulian mirror for the protagonist’s love interest?

Yes (-15) No (+ 15)

Speaking of Oedipus, is Mom the love interest?

Yes (-15) No (+ 15)

Tally up your scores: 100 being the highest number of points one can make (and you can go into the negatives!) 60 and above, of course, is passing!

Part 2: Wives As Mothers

Does the protagonist procreate (or adopt/step parent) any children with their partner?

Yes (+20) No (0)

Does the story end there?

Yes (-20) No (0)

Does the spouse die tragically early and is entirely undeveloped aside from being named?

Yes (-20) No (+20)

Is she somewhat developed but dies after a long grueling life of physical labor because of cancer and/or childbirth, and does this send the protagonist down a path of moral questioning only because his mistress left him or does he become a homeless socialist?

Yes (-20) No (+20)

Is the spouse/mother a neurotic nuisance whose only purpose is for the protagonist to use so he can prey upon his step-child and said annoying neurotic wife is conveniently ran down by a car before she can warn her child?

Yes (-40) No (+20)

 Is she anything aside from a morale booster/free maid and nanny/point of contention? (Is she developed?)

Yes (+ 20) No (-20)

 Is it the protagonist’s Mother?

Yes (-20) No (+ 20)

Score: Again, out of 100. 60 and above is passing.

Part 3: Protagonists (and friends/non-spouses) as Mothers.

At the end of the book, can you remember the number of children and their names? (They do not count if they are flung off of horses and send their sexy fathers into deep drunken depressions and tomorrow will be another day for Mama. And so forth.)

Yes (+20) No (0)

Do they interact with their children at all or are they raised by maids/nannies/mammies?

Interaction (+20) No Interaction (-20)

Are their children some penultimate living symbol of lost purity, sin and slut shaming?

Yes (-20) No (+ 20)

Are their children symbols of their almost sociopathic bad mothering and the guilt they SHOULD feel but don’t because of their gambling/philandering/other horrible excesses for women to have?

Yes (-20) No (+20)

Does Pregnancy/ Children = Death (physical or otherwise)?

Yes (-20) No (+20)

Are the children involved in the story and do we get any actual representation of what motherhood is in the work?

Yes (+20) No (-20)

Scores: Again, out of 100. 60 is passing.

This is a very broad rubric, but I can already think of so many books that fail it. Entirely. It may have been designed around making those books fail (especially the last portion) but is motherhood central to the stories of Emma Bovary and Scarlett O’Hara? Hardly. What else fails the test? Almost everything in the ‘canon’. The point of this rubric, aside from being insanely funny to me at two in the morning when I am feeling especially punchy, is to show the deeply entrenched absence of mothers in literature. It is really quite appalling, as these are very broad requirements I have created, but I find it hard to find almost any texts that really pass with flying colors. Comment with your findings, readers!