A Mother In Mannville

“Fog hides the mountain peaks, the snow swirls down the valleys, and a wind blows so bitterly that the orphanage boys who take the milk twice daily to the baby cottage reach the door with fingers stiff in an agony of numbness.”

Rawlings uses vivid imagery with sensory details such as the snow swirling down the valleys and fog hiding the mountains. This description gives a sense of being cut off from the wider world and entrapped by circumstances. Rawlings also reveals the children’s impoverished condition with the image of their stiff and numb fingers, suggesting they don’t have adequate protection from the elements. This description directly contrasts with the reality of the narrator, who has a warm, cozy cabin and more than enough resources to meet her needs.

“As I spoke, a light came over him, as though the setting sun had touched him with the same suffused glory with which it touched the mountains. I gave him a quarter.”

The image of the sun illuminating Jerry with “suffused glory” gives him an ethereal quality. The experience of seeing Jerry in a (literally) new light has an effect on the narrator—she previously gave him only a dime but now more than doubles the payment—even if the practical detail of the quarter somewhat punctures the lyrical tone.

“He looked at me, and at the coin, and seemed to want to speak, but could not, and turned away.”

This sentence reveals a lot about Jerry’s character and experiences. The narrator’s recognition of his hard work overwhelms him, suggesting his contributions have rarely been acknowledged. It also reveals that he does not know how to respond in a mannerly way, indicating that he has not been taught social graces and providing insight into his reality at the orphanage: Boys are likely expected to contribute, endure harsh conditions, and obey orders. Rawlings suggests Jerry’s confused response with the syntax, using commas and conjunctions to create multiple starts and stops.

“His name was Jerry; he was twelve years old, and he had been at the orphanage since he was four. I could picture him at four, with the same grave gray-blue eyes and the same—independence? No, the word that comes to me is integrity.”

The narrator is beginning to see Jerry’s humanity. She has moved beyond the employee-employer nature of the relationship to view Jerry as a person with a story and desirable qualities. The fact that she associates The Nature of Integrity with independence is significant, hinting at the reserve and self-possession (on both sides) that will prevent Jerry from confiding fully in the narrator.

“The word [integrity] means something very special to me, and the quality for which I use it is a rare one. My father had it—there is another of whom I am almost sure—but almost no man of my acquaintance possesses it with the clarity, the purity, the simplicity of a mountain stream. But the boy Jerry had it.”

This quote shows the progression of the narrator’s relationship with Jerry. She sees a “rare” quality in the way that he has exceeded her expectations, taken responsibility, and asked for nothing in return. She elevates him to the level of one of the most precious people in her life, observing that he exhibits the same integrity as her father.

“I found that when I tried to return his thoughtfulness with such things as candy and apples, he was wordless. ‘Thank you’ was an expression for which he had no use, for his courtesy was instinctive. He only looked at the gift and at me, and a curtain lifted, so that I saw deep into the clear well of his eyes, and gratitude was there, soft over the firm granite of his character.”

The author’s use of the granite metaphor in describing Jerry’s character suggests that his quality is unshakable, as solid as rock. This toughness coexists with the softness suggested by the metaphor of the “clear well” of his eyes. The image suggests the purity of his character as well as his vulnerability.

“He became intimate, of course, with my pointer, Pat. There is a strange communion between a boy and a dog. Perhaps they possess the same singleness of spirit, the same kind of wisdom. It is difficult to explain, but it exists.”

The relationship between Jerry and the dog illustrates the simplicity and purity of Jerry. Dogs are eager to please, want love and attention, and have straightforward motives. Jerry displays these same characteristics. The first time Jerry comes to the cabin, the narrator’s pointer does not even bark, demonstrating that the dog recognizes the boy’s quality.

“He sat by the fire with me, with no other light, and told me of their two days together. The dog lay close to him and found comfort there that I did not have for him. And it seemed to me that being with my dog, and caring for him, had brought the boy and me together so that he felt that he belonged to the animal and me.”

Jerry relays his experience with the dog in the narrator’s absence, telling of their adventures in a manner reminiscent of family members sharing details of their day. The dog’s affection for Jerry contrasts with the narrator’s somewhat detached demeanor toward both, although the narrator here imagines them in a quasi-familial relationship.

“For a moment, finding that he had a mother shocked me as greatly as anything in my life had ever done, and I did not know why it disturbed me. Then I understood my distress. I was filled with a passionate resentment that any woman should go away and leave her son.”

There is no mention of the narrator having children of her own, and given the autobiographical nature of the story, readers can infer she is childless. Nevertheless, she adheres to her society’s ideals of motherhood, responding with outrage to the idea that any mother could leave her son at an orphanage.

“The orphanage was a wholesome place, the executives were kind, good people, the food was more than adequate, the boys were healthy, a ragged shirt was no hardship, nor the doing of clean labor. Granted, perhaps, that the boy felt no lack, what blood fed the bowels of a woman who did not yearn over this child’s lean body that had come in parturition out of her own?”

This quote demonstrates the narrator’s attempts to rationalize Jerry’s reality at the orphanage. The narrator has minimal information about the orphanage, limited to what Jerry has told her. In this quote, she overlooks Jerry’s stories about sick children and inadequate clothing. She says a ragged shirt is not a hardship but ignores Jerry’s lack of shoes, which would be.

“His quality must be apparent to an idiot, a fool. I was burned with questions I could not ask. In any, I was afraid; there would be pain.”

This quote reveals the intensity of the narrator’s feelings toward Jerry and toward the mother who could have left him. It also shows her tenderness toward the boy: She tempers her curiosity because she does not want to cause him any further pain.

“My mind was busy taking pictures of her, trying to understand her. She had not, then, entirely deserted or forgotten him. Buy why then—I thought, ‘I must not condemn her without knowing.’”

The narrator tries to temper her indignation at the mother with rational thought, telling herself she does not know the whole story. Her heightened confusion here reflects Jerry’s claim that his mother once sent him roller skates—a luxury item that implies she did not place him in the orphanage due to poverty. In retrospect, this apparent puzzle is a sign of the story’s untruth.

“I hated her. Poverty or not, there was other food than bread, and the soul could starve as quickly as the body.”

The narrator’s anger at Jerry’s mother stems from the injustice of his situation. He has been abandoned to a lonely life of hard labor and little reward. The narrator also sees his soul’s “starvation”—his gaping need for love and belonging. Ironically, the narrator will herself attempt to do right by Jerry with material gifts.