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What is Mother?

The figure of the mother occupies a central place in Family Science and intersects with psychology, literature, sociology, and public health. Courses in child development, family studies, and counseling regularly ask students to examine how motherhood shapes identity, relationships, and social structures. The topic carries academic weight because it bridges biological and cultural dimensions of caregiving, making it relevant to frameworks such as object relations theory, personality development, and environmental influences on the child. Literary works like Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife and texts such as Rosa Lee and My Bloody Life bring these themes into narrative form, while medical issues like Sudden Infant Death Syndrome ground the topic in clinical and public health contexts.

Student papers on this topic approach motherhood from several distinct angles. Some take a psychological lens, applying object relations theory or personality theories to analyze the mother-child bond. Others perform literary and comparative analysis, examining how mothers are portrayed in works ranging from fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood to Flannery O'Connor's fiction and poetry such as Sharon Olds's "35/10." Still others adopt case-study or social science approaches, exploring how substance abuse, alcohol use during pregnancy, or difficult home environments affect children's development and family outcomes.

A strong essay on this topic needs a focused thesis that commits to one dimension of motherhood rather than treating it as a general survey. Evidence drawn from specific texts, case narratives, or theoretical frameworks carries more weight than broad generalizations about family life. The most common pitfall is conflating the mother's experience with the child's outcome without establishing a clear causal or interpretive argument connecting the two.

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Research Paper Doctorate

Zulu beadwork: cultural significance and symbolic meaning

The Zulu nation is the best-known sub-group of the Nguni tribe, which is one of the largest tribal groupings in South Africa. The Zulus have a rich culture with the traditional handicrafts and the intricate designs of…

Paper Doctorate

The David Reimer case and sex reassignment surgery ethics

In psychological circles there is a case made famous by a psychologist by the name of John Money, who dedicated his life to the study of sexuality. This case is so well-known, that undergraduate psychology students are…

Research Paper Doctorate

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and independent cinema

Major motion pictures have always been about giving the largest possible audience what they want. However, there have always been a few innovators, who make their movies via low budget production methods, that have been able to shift the reality of the big studios. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a movie that helped change the way people viewed movies. There was an ambiguity of protagonist/antagonist roles, and an edgy situation starkly told. This essay gives a critical look at the film and a personal perspective.

The eleventh hour: Climate change, permaculture, and environmental ethics

Global warning/climate change impacts all of humanity, and therefore it is not a local but a global concern that requires multidisciplinary intervention (general point made throughout film).

Research Paper Doctorate

Slave rebellion and moral authority in The Tempest and Oroonoko

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Research Paper Doctorate

Class divisions and the failure of the American dream in *The Great Gatsby*

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is set against the backdrop of 1920's Long Island. It explores multiple themes about the human condition as experienced through the actions of the story's lead character, Jay…

Research Paper Doctorate

Social control through scientific conditioning in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

This report summarizes my experiences and impressions resulting from my month-long visit to the World State, primarily the city of London. My escort, Bernard Marx, introduced me to all aspects of their society and took…

Paper Doctorate

Meconium aspiration syndrome in newborns: causes and complications

According to Kaneshiro (2009), meconium is a dark greenish black sticky and tarry substance that is comprised of amniotic fluid, muscus, lanugo (early hair lining the baby's body), bile and skin and intestinal tract…

Paper Undergraduate

Universal truth and moral ambiguity in Hamlet and The Canterbury Tales

Both Shakespeare's Hamlet and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales do offer universal truths. As Volve states about Chaucer's work in particular: "The tale is firmly anchored in one specific period of history…but it seeks as…

Paper Undergraduate

How Greek mythology domesticated the divine feminine from Hesiod to Homer

Greek Mythology and Feminine Divinity Hesiod's Theogony shows his low opinion of women, yet assigns many vital aspects of life to divine females. However, Greek Mythology eventually weakened, domesticated and limited female divinity. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter shows the limitations and domestication eventually forced on goddesses by Greek mythology. When Demeter's daughter, Persephone, is kidnapped and raped by Hades and Zeus allows it, Demeter can do nothing directly against Hades or Zeus. Instead, Demeter is grief-stricken, withdraws from Olympus and goes to earth, where she becomes a wet nurse for a human's newborn son. Demeter does retain power over humans and still rules the harvest; however, she is powerless to force Hades or Zeus to release her daughter. In addition, after Zeus persuades Hades to release Persephone, Demeter cannot change the fact that Persephone must return to Hades for part of every year. Contrasted with Theogony, we see a considerably weaker, more limited and more domesticated role for a female deity. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo also shows a weaker, more limited and more domesticated role for goddesses. Here, many goddesses are reduced to helping Leto deliver her child, then washing and clothing the child. Even Hera, Zeus's wife, is limited in fighting a god because she can do nothing to stop Zeus' repeated affairs or to harm Zeus directly. The best she can do against him is to vow not to have sex with him and to stay away from Olympus. Nevertheless, Hera retains power in that she is still able to give birth to a child – though a horrible one – without Zeus. By comparing Theogony and the Homeric Hymns to Demeter and Apollo, we can readily see that Greek mythology limited and domesticated a previous notion of feminine divine power.

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