Snapshots: 20th Century Mother–Daughter Fiction

Review of the Short Essay Wicked Girl

Nov 8, 2009 Christine Musser

Janet Berliner puts together a fine anthology of short stories that deal with the mother and daughter relationship. One particular interesting story is Wicked Girl.

The anthology is a series of seventeen essays of fiction written by various writers using the mother/daughter theme. Joyce Carol Oates explained in her forward that a daughter isn’t only become her mother, she also becomes her father “and any number of ancestors known and unknown. She is the sum of all her influences – genetic, environmental, personal, and impersonal". Oates believes this, but at times feels that women do have a strong sense of their mother in them. She basis this thought on the poem “Housewife” by Anne Sexton.

The stories in Berliner's anthology are meant to entertain the reader, but the stories are much more. The stories tell of loss of mother physically or emotionally. They stories touched on the rivalries between mothers and daughters as well as the joys of the relationship.

The first story, Wicked Girl, The story was about a single Mexican mother who owned a boarding house. Her daughter Elena helped do the cleaning and cooking. One day a man arrived and asked for a room. The man was a musician. He performed at night and slept during the day. At first Elena saw nothing wonderful about this man. And then one night he performed in the courtyard of the boarding house. After that performance Elena’s mother was infatuated with him. She began to accommodate all his needs. Elena watched her mother and was curious about this man.

Elena was eleven years old. Her curiosity about sex was beginning and this man, Juan José Bernal, for some reason stimulated her curiosity. Elena would go into his room at night when he would be performing and go through his things. She would smell his clothes and lay on his bed and imagine him kissing her and holding her. One night when she left her room she heard noises coming from her mother’s bedroom. She quietly opened her mother’s door and saw Juan in bed with her mother. She was shocked. She had no idea that Juan and her mother were close in this way. Her heart was broken.

What a story. I think I liked this story so much was because of how the man called the girl wicked and not even considering that he might be wicked. In the end it was Elena who was saved from wickedness, while Juan lived a life of turmoil. Another twist to the story was the fact that the mother married the man that her daughter was infatuated with. What does that say about the mother? The story mentions nothing about the mother and daughter discussing that day. I am going to assume that it the day was left go. The mother had no desire to bring the day up. If she did, how would that reflect on the mother’s actions?

Source:

Oates, Joyce Carol & Berliner, Janet, ed. Snapshots: 20th Century Mother–Daughter Fiction.

Jaffrey, NH, DAVID R. GODINE, 2000.

The copyright of the article Snapshots: 20th Century Mother–Daughter Fiction in American Fiction is owned by Christine Musser. Permission to republish Snapshots: 20th Century Mother–Daughter Fiction in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.