The Conflict Between Mother and Child

Die, My Love

This conflict flow follows the narrator's open warfare with her own baby and, later, with the child who carries her abandonment.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Invisible Cry The Invisible Cry from "Die, My Love". The Invisible Cry Context The narrator hears the baby crying every night, but when she goes to him she finds absolute silence, as if a few seconds of his cries…

The Invisible Cry from "Die, My Love". The Invisible Cry Context The narrator hears the baby crying every night, but when she goes to him she finds absolute silence, as if a few seconds of his cries…

The Invisible Cry Context The narrator hears the baby crying every night, but when she goes to him she finds absolute silence, as if a few seconds of his cries had been recorded and were playing back. Turn Other times she hears nothing and does not go, until the husband asks why he won't stop crying. She says she hasn't the faintest idea. Aftermath The invisible cry becomes a symptom of her alienation from motherhood. The baby's need is real, but her connection to it is broken.

The Swearing Morning The Swearing Morning from "Die, My Love". The Swearing Morning Context The baby wakes at seven on the dot, and the narrator spends the morning swearing at him, one insult after another.

The Swearing Morning from "Die, My Love". The Swearing Morning Context The baby wakes at seven on the dot, and the narrator spends the morning swearing at him, one insult after another.

The Swearing Morning Context The baby wakes at seven on the dot, and the narrator spends the morning swearing at him, one insult after another. She fills him up with dirty words. Turn He asks, Mum, pee, and she tells him to go and pee on his own. She reflects that it is not okay to bad-mouth your own baby or walk around firing a gun. Aftermath The morning establishes the narrator's shame and fury. The conflict with the baby is a conflict with her own failed maternity.

The Unclaimed Child The Unclaimed Child from "Die, My Love". The Unclaimed Child Context The narrator loses sight of the baby on a downhill slope and runs through the woods, arms flailing.

The Unclaimed Child from "Die, My Love". The Unclaimed Child Context The narrator loses sight of the baby on a downhill slope and runs through the woods, arms flailing.

The Unclaimed Child Context The narrator loses sight of the baby on a downhill slope and runs through the woods, arms flailing. She finds him lying on branches and climbs up to him. Turn They sit holding on to each other, but later she dunks him in the icy water and he begins to fade. She shakes him and wraps him in her red flesh to revive him. Aftermath The woods expose the ambivalence at the heart of her motherhood. She both saves her child and nearly loses him in the same movement.

The Autopilot Mother The Autopilot Mother from "Die, My Love". The Autopilot Mother Context The narrator cannot even go to the bathroom because the baby cries and cries.

The Autopilot Mother from "Die, My Love". The Autopilot Mother Context The narrator cannot even go to the bathroom because the baby cries and cries.

The Autopilot Mother Context The narrator cannot even go to the bathroom because the baby cries and cries. She says she is a mother, full stop, and she regrets it, but she cannot say that to anyone. Turn She lifts him with a fake smile and thinks Mummy was happy before the baby came. She calls her husband and hangs up because he pretends not to understand. Aftermath The regret is a secret she cannot speak. The baby's need becomes an assault, and her body responds with rage instead of love.

The Gift-Wrapped Son The Gift-Wrapped Son from "Die, My Love". The Gift-Wrapped Son Context As the narrator flees in the convertible, she shouts to her husband that their son is all his, a present, gift-wrapped.

The Gift-Wrapped Son from "Die, My Love". The Gift-Wrapped Son Context As the narrator flees in the convertible, she shouts to her husband that their son is all his, a present, gift-wrapped.

The Gift-Wrapped Son Context As the narrator flees in the convertible, she shouts to her husband that their son is all his, a present, gift-wrapped. She says he deserves him more than she does. Turn The son is reduced to an object she can hand over. The conflict between mother and child ends in a public act of abandonment. Aftermath The boy is no longer her baby. The battle is over, and the father has won the child by default.

early in the baby's life, at night

a winter Sunday, early in the day

when the son is a toddler in the woods

a day of infant care, before the commitment

at the end of the second birthday party