the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

57
nurturing relationship Walker herself had with her mother
and of which she gives a moving account in In Search of Our
~others' Gardens Meridian as a daughter is afraid of the
Black Motherhood personified in her mother. Steeped in the
lnstltutlon of motherhood, Mrs Hill's life is a "sacrifice",
a "blind, enduring, stumbling" IM 71) through life. She
does not take extreme positions on anything, unless
urreasonably provoked over a long period. It is clear that
she has reached this State of passlve feminlne motherhood by
k-lllng the femlnist in her Although Merldian hates the
lnstitutlon of motherhood personif led by her mother, though
she feels that her mother cannot understand her llfe and
prays only for her soul, Merldian is unable to dlssoclate
from her mother as is seen In her preservation of her
letters
2.2.4.4. "My mother, you know, was a great femlnist. She
brought me up to be equal She made there be no questions,
no d-fference" (MS 321, says Rosamund Stacey of Drabble's
The Millstone In contrast to Walker's Heridian and
Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors, where the mothers of
:he prevlous generation are representatives of femlnlne
motherhood, ~osamund's mother is an avowed femlnlst
Drabble's protagonists, being intelligent, Independent and
successful are no doubt, examples of true feminists,.but the
actual espousal of the feminist cause is often pushed back