Role of Parents

The text encourages us to view the role of parents as something that is very structured and set. Mothers are supposed to care for the children and fathers are supposed to provide for the family, even if it means never being home. And in this particular novel, The Wide, Wide World, Ellen, the child, is considered a parental figure as well even though she is only eight years old. She has to care for her ill mother and that can take a toll on a child. She has more responsibilities than most children because she does not have the option to go out and play because she must be the "Nurse" for her mom. The novel does stress the importance of parental roles, because it is essentially the glue that holds a family together, especially in the nineteenth century. The text clearly divides the roles of mothers versus fathers and it illustrates how the world was when Ellen is growing up in the story. Mrs. Montgomery, even if she wasn't sick, is expected to remain at home and raise her child because that's just the way things are. And Mr. Montgomery is rarely mentioned or seen in the story, which symbolizes the fact that fathers were never really around. They had to make money for the family, and if that meant never being home then so be it. I consider Mr. Montgomery to be very neglecting towards his daughter, and I don't necessarily think it was uncommon back then for fathers to not know their children. On page 75 Warner says, "She (Mrs. Montgomery) understood far better than her husband what Ellen's feelings were, and could interpret much more truly then he the signs of them..." In this one sentence, the reader is plainly told that the mother knows her child inside and out, verbally and nonverbally, and the father knows nothing about her. Ellen perceives her parents as people she aspires to be, mostly her mother for her courage, faith in God, and undying love for her. She sees them as teachers, even friends, and she expects the roles of the father and mother in her family. She expects the father to never be around and she expects the mother to be the primary caretaker. But even still, Ellen thinks that her own rol ein te family is normal, she thinks all children help out their mothers as much as she does whch is simply not true because Ellen has much more responsibility than any 8 year old in her time or circumstance. Even in the laborious task of fixing her mother tea and toast she claims, " It was a real pleasure; she had the greatest satisfaction..she knew her hands made it better..." (26.) She has no clue that what she does for her mother, the way she cares for her mother, is almost a role reversal because normally the mother does that for her child. Poor Ellen had to grow up too fast and play the role of "mother"and "nurse" in the household because of her circumstance and I think she broke towards the end because of it (even though we don't know the real ending).