the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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unrecognizable as individuals" (clted in Alladl 1986 101)
The change in outlook 1s vlslble when writers lrke Margaret
Walker and Louse Merrlwether are compared to Ton1 Morrlson
or Allce Walker Margaret Walker's Jubilee 1s an exaltation
of motherhood, deplcted through Vyry, a mother at seventeen.
whose llfe 1s a repetltlon of her mother's Loulse
Merrlwether's Daddy was a Nwnbcr Runner portrays Henrletta,
another example of a self-sacrlfrclng mother Allce
Walker's short storles portray mothers who undergo
degradation and self-annihilation, tolerate violence. In
order to save thelr chlldren In her storres, 'Roselily',
'The Revenge of Hannah Kemhuff' and 'Strong Horse Tea', from
In Love and Trouble and In The Thard Life of Grange
Copeland, we come across such self-sacrlflclng mothers In
Ton1 Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Paullne Breedlove 1s unlrke
the stereotyped image of the black matriarch who holds the
iamlly together Dlssatlsfled wlth the role of motherhood.
Paulrne carrles it wlth reslgnatlon In Sula. Eva Peace 1s
lnltlally portrayed as a sacr~flclng mother but soon the
stereotype 1s broken and the rest of the portralt as a
mother 1s less posltlve Of the other mothers In the novel,
Hannah 1s not ~nterested In carlng for her chlldren. Helena
IS a stern parent who smothers all natural lnstlncts of her
chlld, Nel 1s the over-protect~ve mother who chokes her
chlldren wlth too much love, and Sula herself is Interested