Interpretation of I am Becoming My Mother

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Interpretation of I am Becoming My Mother

Writer:            Lorna GoodisonBorn:               1947

Nationality:    West Indian

Working:          At the University of Michigan

The present poem ‘I am Becoming My Mother’ is written by a Jamaican poet, Lorna Goodison. She is a leading West Indian writer of the generation born after the World War II. Currently, she is teaching at the University of Michigan.

This poem shows especially the two era relationship: old and new generation. Here, mother refers to the era in which a daughter of new era is becoming herself as a mother having the roles and responsibilities and duty as well of daughter as mother. Literally, daughter belongs to the new era and she is even younger than mother but gradually she is becoming like mother. Like her mother, she works in the kitchen, begets the children and looks after their happiness.  Like mother, she suffers the continuous bleeding and her hands also give the smell of onions. Time has changed, civilization has progressed a lot but the women’s roles have not been changed. They were and are in the same location and same responsibilities. Era has not brought any essential change in the role of the women. She is a daughter because she belongs to the new age and she is a mother because her role is not new.

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