our favorite mothers in books.
Happy Mother's Day!
Welcome back readers, and welcome, new readers –
To celebrate Mother’s Day, we thought we’d write about some of our favorite fictional mothers – let us know in the comments what book mothers you love, and join us in saluting our own wonderful mothers: Veronica (Trudi), Monika (Marianne), and Johanna and Roswith (mother and step-mother of Norann).
Marianne – in Woodcrest, upstate New York
Over the past sixteen years as my children have been growing up, I’ve had the chance to revisit many of my favorite children’s books, which I now read with a slightly different perspective. Instead of focusing only on the adventurous child at the center of the action, I now also notice the good-humored, resourceful, and affectionate mothers who might be in the background of the story but who are completely essential to the happy ending. Here’s a list of some of my favorites:
Let’s start with Mrs Beaver, with her sewing machine and gloriously sticky marmalade roll. She’s affectionate, loyal, clearsighted, and protects those she loves. The keeper of a homely house and abundant table, she’s not afraid to venture forth to set the world to rights.
Feelings of solidarity for Mrs Tabitha Twitchit in The Tale of Tom Kitten: “What a thing it is to have an unruly family!”
Mother Bunny in The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes by Dubose Heyward (also the author of Porgy and Bess!) was “not only wise, and kind, and swift, but also the bravest of all the bunnies.” I was badly intimidated by this picture of her effortlessly handling 21 newborns when I was figuring out how to care for our first baby, and I think every mother can learn from her masterful and satisfying household management (read the book to find out).
Patience, understanding, and deft problem-solving are characteristics of Frances’ mother in Russell Hoban’s Frances books. She also knows the great importance of a sweet treat: “There will always be plenty of chocolate cake around here.”
Babar’s Queen Celeste is another delightful mother, I have always admired the way she arranges the trunks of Pom, Flora, and Alexander in this picture.
She definitely takes better care of her children than the governess:
Fun-loving Sister Gabriel in Claire Huchet Bishop’s Twenty and Ten not only cares for twenty displaced French children during the Second World War but also inspires them to compassion and heroic daring as they outwit the Nazis to save the lives of ten Jewish children, never showing a trace of fear to the children she is caring for.
General Anna in Jean Merrill’s The Pushcart War – so motherly, so determined, and so effective – is essential to the triumph of the pushcart movement. Also, “By Hand.”
Anyone who spent ages 8 – 12 wishing they lived on Prince Edward Island will cherish the adopted motherhood of Marilla. Reading about a fictional mother whose strictness often proved to be wise has perhaps provided a helpful perspective to many girls when their own mother seemed unreasonably strict.
The wonderful Mother in Edith Nesbitt’s The Railway Children “had the power of silent sympathy.... she is able to know that you are unhappy, and to love you extra on that account, without bothering you by telling you all the time how sorry she is for you.” My children will appreciate it when I master this.
Growing up as one of four sisters, the world of Little Women felt incredibly familiar, especially its beautiful portrayal of how a mother can love each daughter exactly the way she needs to be loved (my mom, with four sons in addition to the daughters, deserves a book of her own).
Ma Ingalls in the Little House books and Mama in Sydney Taylor’s All of a Kind Family (five sisters this time) have the same gift for raising girls as Marmee. And Pride and Prejudice’s Mrs Bennett should not be forgotten, making herself ridiculous in her energetic quest to secure happiness for her daughters. Not at all ridiculous but yet a sister to Mrs Bennet in working for the happiness of her four daughters (and four sons) is the loving, wise, protective Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse.
Honoria Lucasta, the canny and affectionate mother of Lord Peter Wimsey, is a kindred spirt to anyone who thinks by free-associating, and is also a wise and shrewd woman: “My dear child, you can give it a long name if you like, but I’m an old-fashioned woman and I call it mother-wit, and it’s so rare for a man to have it that if he does you write a book about him and call him Sherlock Holmes.”
And finally, Janet in George MacDonald’s Sir Gibbie: “She was a mother. One who is mother only to her own children is not a mother; she is only a woman who has borne children. But here was one of God’s mothers.”
Norann - in Danthonia, New South Wales, Australia
My birth mother died when I was one, so, from my earliest listening and reading years, I searched constantly for examples of motherhood in literature.
I was blessed with a wonderful stepmother, but because I didn’t have a “real” mother, it felt to me that anyone was fair game – I could find mothers anywhere (and did and have) but the ones hidden away in books were mine for the taking. They could mother me in secret whenever I needed it.
A “book mother” I loved and learned from in my primary school years was Caroline “Ma” Ingalls, the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As I read and re-read the Little House on the Prairie series, I felt Ma teaching me through the lessons she imparted to her girls.
Here are my five favorite lessons from “Ma”:
Choose gratitude. Ma is always encouraging those around her to make the best of difficult situations - from Mary’s blindness, to crop failure and weather calamities. Laura thought, “Ma is right, there is always something to be thankful for”. ….This earthly life is a battle,’ said Ma. ‘If it isn’t one thing to contend with, it’s another. It always has been so, and it always will be. The sooner you make up your mind to that, the better off you are, and more thankful for your pleasures.”
Nurture the beauty within. While Ma helps her girls to dress as well as their means allow and put in an effort towards their appearances, she places a greater emphasis on the beauty of their characters.
As I tried to morph from an ungainly youngster with buckteeth, thick glasses, and unruly hair to a more polished pre-teen, I took Ma’s messages about vanity to heart : (“vanity cakes - because they are all puffed up, like vanity, with nothing solid inside”) and Laura’s gazing in the mirror ( “handsome is as handsome does”) .
Value hard work and the gift of education. Much like my own parents, Ma insists on everyone helping with the housework and barn chores every day, without complaining. She praises the girls for a job done well, and helps them to do better and learn new tasks. In addition, their school lessons are a priority in the evening before recreation, and when Laura is expelled for being disruptive in school, Ma is quietly in the background insisting that they complete their lessons anyway and return the next day in a new frame of mind.
Put things right when you’ve done wrong and don’t gossip. Ma provides wonderful guidance to her daughters, and encourages them not to fear making mistakes, but to forgive quickly and ask for forgiveness. As Laura matures and is confronted by situations where she is tempted to gossip, Ma inspires her with these wise words:
If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care,
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.Live a life of faith, resilience, and courage. Throughout the series, Ma’s strong and simple faith, ability to recover after setbacks, and courage to pioneer shine at every step. She creates a welcoming home filled with unity, stability, and love.
Of course, like all of us mothers, Ma has her faults. Even on my first read of the books, I felt Ma’s attitude toward the Native Americans to be a kind of racism borne out of fear and ignorance. Pa, in a more frontier-hearty way, often chides her to embrace their culture and their original ownership of the territory, but it’s a historical tension you feel throughout the series.
Regardless, I often return to Ma’s wisdom: “The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”
Trudi – in Spring Valley, southwest Pennsylvania
Motherhood is not limited to those who give birth to children. Any woman who raises a child is a mother, and any woman who loves and cares for children is certainly a mother at heart.
In middle school, I discovered Anne of Green Gables. I read the whole series and wished L.M. Montgomery had written more. To use Anne’s phrase, I felt I’d met a “kindred spirit”, but really only because my red hair and freckles were as detestable to me as they had been to Anne. Carrots, ketchup, freckles, beanpole—I’ve heard it all.
Marilla does not welcome Anne at first—it really is quite a jolt to be thrust into the position of mother to such a spirited child—but her brusque, strict nature softens over time, and she comes to love the orphan girl.
An unforgettable scene is when Mrs. Rachel Linde meets Anne and says, “She’s terribly skinny and homely, Marilla. . and hair as red as carrots!”. Not surprisingly, Anne flies into a fury and says things that she later has to apologize for.
Marilla does not excuse Anne’s behavior and firmly insists on an apology, but like a true mother defending her child, she tells Mrs. Linde that she shouldn’t have spoken like that to Anne. My mother would have done the same, and I hope every mother would.
Side-note: as well as being a children’s classic, the story of “Anne” has international renown. In Korea, friends often asked me if I knew about “빨강머리 앤”, or “Red-haired Anne”. Most of them had seen and enjoyed the Korean adaptation of a 1979 Japanese TV animation of Anne of Green Gables (赤毛のアン). It aired in Korea in 1985, and again in 1998 and 2008.
Things we’re doing / enjoying
Trudi
At the moment, I’m enjoying the sound of rain pattering on leaves outside my window. Every day the lush beauty of May catches my attention. Here’s a delicate floral example:
I love helping the children I teach every day to explore the world and appreciate God’s creation. We are so blessed. I wish every child could experience spring in the same way.
Marianne
A small favorite part of my day is doing word puzzles with my 11-year-old daughter. We work through the New York Times puzzles (Wordle, Connections, Mini Crossword, and Strands, always in that order) and then move on to the slightly trickier Nomido.
Bruderhof students learn to read with a phonics-based curriculum that involves memorizing many spelling rules, which I think explains my daughter’s uncanny ability to solve Wordle (“Mom those letters never go together with a vowel after them” “there aren’t any words with “u” after that letter…” etc) and find combinations in Nomido, at least that is what I tell myself as she types in answers faster than I can think them.
Norann
There have been so many gifts for this mother’s heart already this year (our oldest son married, our second son thriving in New York City, our youngest son graduating high school in a few weeks) that I did not anticipate an extra gift of celebrating my biological mother Hanna’s 85th birthday by hiking in the rainforest with my sister Eunice.
Eunice is two years older than me, is married to Martin, and has four grown children. She has been wishing to visit Australia for some years now, and was delighted to finally spend a few weeks in our beautiful country.
I think Eunice looks a lot like our Mom - here’s a picture of Mom on a camping trip in her 20s.
Mom died when she was 37, so it’s hard to imagine her as an 85 year old. To us, she will be forever young.
Like our mother, Eunice and I both love outdoor adventures, especially if they involve wild places, lots of hiking, and the possibility of swimming. (After our hike up steep and viney trails in the rainforest, we plunged into a freezing pool.) We also love stars, campfires, and hospitality.
But Eunice is unlike me in many ways – she’s brilliant with numbers, is an outstanding housekeeper, and inherited a special gift from our mother that few people posess: she is a wonderful support to elderly people when they are dying.
I realize that it’s an unusual thing to say, but Eunice has a rare ability to be a comforting and peaceful presence during the Home Going of a loved one, and to impart reassurance to their family. I asked her about this gift when we were together here, and she was very pragmatic, “Our other sisters, Marion and Irene, are midwives. They help at the beginnings, I help at the end. It just comes naturally to me.” Truly motherhood comes in many forms.
That’s all for now folks. Enjoy the season you’re in, and Happy Mothers Day!