Mothers have always held such symbolic weight in determining a person's worth. Your mother tongue, your motherland, your mother's values - these things can qualify or disqualify you from attaining myriad American dreams: love, fluency, citizenship, legitimacy, acceptance, success, freedom.
Interpretation
Mothers significantly influence our identity and the opportunities we have in life.
This quote emphasizes the profound impact that mothers have on shaping our identities and the value we place on ourselves. It highlights how aspects such as language, cultural background, and maternal values can determine our chances of achieving dreams, acceptance, and success in society, particularly in the context of the American experience.
In practice
In a speech about cultural identity, one could reference this quote to highlight the role of motherhood in shaping personal values.
As I got older, I realised that people saw me as other things - sometimes Korean, sometimes Japanese, sometimes just Asian. When my family moved to a more affluent white neighbourhood, I started to see myself as 'other', this amorphous category. I didn't even know what 'not other' was, but I knew I wasn't it; I wasn't what was normal.
I ran to the children's room: their door was ajar, I saw they had never laid down, though it was past midnight; but they were calmer, and did not need me to console them. The little souls were comforting each other with better thoughts than I could have hit on: no parson in the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did, in their innocent talk; and, while I sobbed, and listened. I could not help wishing we were all there safe together.
The abused children are alone with their suffering, not only within the family, but also within themselves. They cannot crate a place in their own soul where they could cry their beart out.
An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent.
If I do my job well, then God will smile on my offspring and on their offspring. I'm sure my father is seeing a blessing in me.
[My dad] didn't do much apart from the traditional winning of bread. He didn't take me to get my hair cut or my teeth cleaned; he didn't make the appointments. He didn't shop for my clothes. He didn't make my breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My mom did all of those things, and nobody ever told her when she did them that it made her a good mother.
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