The Mother Bellflower Story

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BELLFLOWER. BY MALIK A.BAKI “Her walk reminded one of a ship in a storm, and her head, which was always covered with an enormous white cap, whose ribbons fluttered down her back, seemed to traverse the horizon from North to South and from South to North, at each limp.” The purpose of this exploratory essay is to determine whether and how discovering a completely new aspect of a person’s life affects the discoverer’s perception of that person, and to shed some light on the relationship between the physical and the nonphysical qualities of some of the story’s characters and items. In this paper, I intend to focus on Mother Bellflower as the character that the newfound aspect belongs to, as well as on the narrator himself as the child who learns of this aspect. The story describes the way the main narrator/the author remembers his parents’ old seamstress as a child only ten or twelve years old. He mentions, several times, how the memories of their seamstress have clung vividly to his young mind; indicating the considerable impact her presence left on his life. This is especially obvious in the author’s comparison between the narratives told by Mother Bellflower –their seamstress– and those recounted by his mother. He describes the content of the latter as “ingenious” and mentions their esteemed authors (poets), but argues…show more content…
He is enchanted by her tales and adores her for her “large heart” and simple acts of kindness (e.g., giving up the foot-warmer so that the child might not catch cold while listening to her stories in the chilly room); all despite his awareness that she is merely a peasant, lame woman whose job is to mend the linen. Her physical characteristics are actually unappealing and do not typically correspond to those of a heroine, but the author’s image of Bellflower also seems to pierce through all outside layers and focus directly on the
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