“She is going to find every speck of dirt” “Don’t, Nancy, I’ve told you – it’s the only way she knows how to be
useful. What did the doctor say?” “A real fatherly lecture.”
Olsen, 1976: 80
In her days as an old woman, Eva and David are often invited to Paul’s house on the wee
kend to have dinner together. Paul is one of Eva’s kids and he is married to Nancy. It is just after a regular Sunday dinner
with Paul’s little family that Nancy insists on cleaning the kitchen instead of Eva. Nancy tells her that she
does not need to do it because she will do it later. Actually, Nancy knows very well that Eva is a meticulous person. She will not stop cleaning the kitchen until it
is clean thoroughly. However, David tells Nancy not to stop Eva from cleaning the kitchen as it is the only way she knows how to be useful. It indicates that there
is a traditional way men see women during this era. Women are seen as figures that are useful only when it comes to doing house chores and doing chores itself is
considered as a low job. Men are better just because they get to do other things. Eva gets weaker as she gets older. She is later diagnosed a small kidney
disorder .
Paul, one of Eva’s children, invites David and Eva for a regular Sunday dinners together with Paul’s wife, Nancy. On their third Sunday together, Paul
notices that Eva looks different lately from the way she crumples on the couch .
“Have you thought maybe Ma should let a doctor have a look at her? Asked their son Paul after Sunday dinner, regarding his mother crumpled
on the couch, instead of, as was her custom, busying herself in Nancy’s kitchen
. ”
“Why not the President too?” “Seriously, Dad. This is the third Sunday she’s lain down like that after
dinner .
Is she that way at home?” “A regular love affair with the bed.”
Olsen, 1976: 79
When P aul asks David’s opinion if Eva should be checked by a doctor,
David sarcastically replies that the President should see her too . Then, Paul tries
to convince David by asking if that is the way Eva usually acts around the house .
David only says that she regularly has an affair with the bed as an answer .
From David’s reply, it implies that Eva is indeed weak that she only lies on the bed regularly
. However, instead of showing concerns, David sees her as a woman who fails to do her duty as a wife as she just sits around on the bed
. It also shows that David does not have any interest in Eva despite her significant
difference in appearance . David thinks that they seem to be estranged as a couple.
After that third dinner, David tries to convince Eva to move to Haven by saying that she will be healthier there. After trying for some times, Eva is still
going strong on her decision. One night, David leaves for a meeting in spite of Eva’s weak condition after the test results comes out. Eva begs David to stay
because she feels like she needs him. Instead, he mocks her for constantly changing her mind, and leaves her behind, sobbing and cursing him.
“One night, she asked him: “You have a meeting tonight? Do not go… Stay with me.”
He had planned to watch ‘This Is Your Life,’ but half sick himself from
the heavy heat, and sickening therefore the more after the brooks and woods of the Haven, with satisfaction he grated:
“Hah, Mrs. Live Alone And Like It wants company all of a sudden of solitary when she was a girl exile in Sibe
ria. ‘Do not go, Stay with me.’ A new song from Mrs. Free as a Bird. Yes, I am going out, and while I am
gone, chew this aloneness good, and think how you keep us both from where if you want people, you do not need to be alone.”
“Go, go. All your life you have gone without me.” After him, she sobbed curses he had not heard in years, old country curses
from their childhood. Olsen, 1976: 83
When he returns, Eva lies on a cot on their sun-porch. She stays there for a week, and she refuses to talk to or go near him. He finds the bed seems empty
without her. One day, he hears her singing an Old Russian love song as she gets wet from the rain. He insists she come inside, but has to help her because she is so
weak. At this time, David realizes that they are estranged as a couple indeed. David feels like he does not know Eva anymore. Only after Eva is dead
does David realize that Eva has been alone all along from the way she chooses to sing old songs.
Eva does not consider David’s existence in her days. He is never there and he regrets it, but it is too late. To conclude, Eva is oppressed as a
housewife as she cannot do what she wants and she is shown as a weak figure compared to David. It is related to the unspoken rule of the patriarchal society
mentioned earlier. There is a structure in the society and men have the advantages as they are higher in position compared to women.
2. Eva as a Mother
As a mother, Eva has the duty to raise seven kids. Their names are Clara, Lennie, Hannah, Vivi, Paul, Sammy, and Davy. Later in the story, it is also
revealed that Davy, the youngest, dies in his childhood. He is rarely mentioned in the story. Being a mother of seven, Eva is shown as a busy mother. Her daily
routines are filled with hectic house conditions. “Mother, I told you the teacher said we had to bring it back all filled out
this morning. Did you even ask daddy? Then tell me which plan and I’ll check it: evacuate or leave the city or wait for you to take me away.
Seeing the look of straining to hear . It’s for disaster, grandma.”
“Vivi in the maze of long, the lovely drunkenness. The old noises; screaming of a mother flayed to exasperation; children quarrelling;
children playing; singing; laughter.” Olsen, 1976: 96
Morty, Vivi’s little son always comes near his grandma whenever she is around. He climbs up to Eva as he wants to play with her. He tells her about one
of the assignments in school that needs to be filled up by tomorrow for disaster. After Vivi sees the two interact, she immediately recalls her old days in the past.
She remembers the atmosphere and the condition back then. The house is noisy and the children are up to their own things. They play around, laugh, sing, and
quarrel. Eva wants them to stay silent, but she seems to have a slight problem in nursing them as she is the only adult and there are seven of the kids. Even from
Vivi’s point of view as one of the children, Eva is flayed to exasperation at that time.
Despite the fact that Eva has a hard time in doing some tasks as a mother, she always gives her best. She takes care of them all by herself and she even
breastfeeds them all. The children, except Davy, also grow up to be healthy and well-mannered. Vivi also looks up to Eva as she also becomes a mother.
“Nursing the baby: My friends marvel, and I tell them, oh it’s easy to become such a cow
. I remember how my mother seemed nursing my brother and the milk just flows
... Was it Davy? It must have been Davy... ”
“Lowering a hem: How did you ever... When I think how you made everything we wore
... Tim, just think, seven kids and Mommy sewed everything
... Do I remember you sang while you sewed? That white dress with the red apples on the skirt you fixed over me? Was it Hannah’s of
Clara’s before it was mine?” “Washing sweaters: Ma, I will never forget, one of those days so nice you
washed clothes outside; one of those spring days it must have been . The
bubbles just danced while you scrubbed, and we chased after, and you stop to show us how to blow our own bubbles with green onion stalks
... you always
... ”
“Strong onion, to still make you cry after so many years, her father said to turn the tears into laughter
. ”
Olsen, 1976: 96-97
Vivi recalls her childhood days with her mother a lot . It shows some of the
chores that Eva has to do as a part of raising her children . Despite the fact that Eva
sees her house chores as a duty that has to be done rather than a call of heart like mentioned before, she is doing it happily and she does not take her emotion on
her children . Instead, she is able to play and communicate well with the children.
From Vivi’s perspectives, it is also shown that she sees Eva as a successful mother
. She looks up to her as a role model of a “good” mother. Even though she
seems to have a bit of problem in nursing the children as shown in the previous part, she does great in general
. She sews all of her children’s clothes, and finds
comfort in the middle of her chores by playing with the bubbles . From here, it can
be seen that David is never really in the picture to help Eva and she does all the work alone
. David
’s reaction to Eva’s hard work also indicates that David is indeed not impressed and he looks down on Eva as a mother
. Instead of feeling grateful, he turns Eva’s work and Vivi’s memory into laughter. It is not the first time David
reacts that way . He acts in the similar way multiple times as showed in the
previous part when Paul suggests taking Eva to the hospital and when Eva begs him not to leave her
. Later that night, Vivi also invites David and Eva to spend some nights with their family. It is done to help Eva feel better about her
condition. David accepts the offer, but Eva shows the otherwise after she sees that Vivi is busy with loads of works at home.
“Blind to around you as always: the little ones sleep four in a room because we take their bed. We are two more people in a house with a new
baby and no help.” “Vivi is happy so. The children should have their grandparents in a while,
she told me. I should have my mommy and daddy….” “Babbler and blind. Do you look at her so tired? How she starts to talkand
she cries? I am not strong enough yet to help. Let us go home.” To reconciled solitude
Olsen, 1976: 95 As it is mentioned that Vivi sees Eva as a successful mother, Vivi looks
up to Eva as how a “good” mother should be. As a result, Vivi acts like Eva when
it comes to her life as a woman. She focuses on running errands around the house while taking care of her children and husband. Despite the fact that Vivi asks Eva
and David to stay with her little family for a while, Eva is the only one realizes that the newlywed has given up their main bedroom for the parents. It is done so
Eva and David can stay in a more comfortable way in the house. More than that, Eva is also the only one to see that Vivi is actually tired.
Her tiredness can be seen from her appearance and the way she acts. However, David claims that Vivi is happy with her curren
t condition and fails to see Vivi’s hardships as a housewife. The researcher sees that Eva wants to help Vivi as she
receives similar treatments from her husband in being a housewife. However, she Eva is too weak to do so. She then calls David blind and she invites David to go
back to their old place. Her action shows that she cares about Vivi as her mother and she does not want Vivi to experience the same hardships Eva experiences in
relation to women’s role in the society.
As a mother, Eva is also shown to have an estranged relationship with Clara, the oldest child in the family. At first, Eva does her job as a mother without
affection involved at first. As she becomes more comfortable with becoming a mother, the connection with her other children also grows naturally. However,
Clara has become the victim as she receives the least care from her mother. Now one by one the children came, those that were able. Hannah, Paul,
Sammy. Too late to ask: and did you learn with your living, Mother, and what do we do now?
Clara the eldest clenched: Pay me back, Mother, pay me back for all you took from me. Those others
you crowded into your heart. The hands I needed to be for you, the heaviness, the responsibility.
Is this she? Noises the dying make, the crablike hands crawling over the covers. The ethereal singing.
She hears that music, that singing from the childhood; forgotten sound
– not heard since, since… And the darkness breaks like a cry: Where did we
lose each other, first mother, singing mother? Annulled: The quarrels, the gibing, the harshness between; the fall into
silence and the withdrawal. I do not know you, Mother. Mother, I never knew you.
Olsen, 1976: 116 On the
day Eva dies, Clara is one of Eva’s children who happen to be able to come. Upon seeing her mother lying down lifeless, she recalls her old days
being the oldest child in the family. Clara sees Eva as a mother who cherishes the other siblings better than her as the oldest child, even though it is not really the
case. A part of Clara wants her mother to pay back all the times she has lost, when she needs Eva the most. Another part of her, however, also regrets it. Clara is even
curious on how they become estranged as a mother and a daughter themselves. This big question itself is the riddle, the main problem, in the short story.
