Literature Discussion-Motherhood

Q1: How is motherhood presented in any two or three stories in the collection?

Story-Tanjong Rhu
A: In Tanjong Rhu, the mother is Mr Lee's mother, Ah-Ma.
The way that motherhood is presented in this story is through Ah-Ma being the one who keeps the past of her child, which in this case is Mr Lee.
When Mr Lee bought binoculars for his mother, she did not want it at first. She said:"Ah-Wah, things you can buy, i do not need." From this sentence, it means that things that Mr Lee can buy are the materialistc and real things. But Ah-Ma did not need them, for the things she need are her past, which no matter how much Mr Lee has , he cannot buy.
The past that Ah-Ma needs is the childhood of Mr Lee. Ah-Ma remembers the past of her which is of the younger verison of Mr Lee climbing in the empty hulls of the fishing boats that his father was building.
Therefore in my opinion, the motherhood presented in this story is of Ah-Ma being the one who keeps the past of her own child.

Mid-autumn
A: The mother make sure that the Ovaltine is cool enough for her daughter to drink, when they went to the coffee shop during the lantern festival.
She pay for her daughter's pile of revision assessment books and mock PSLE exam paper, all by herself. She stayed in her teaching job even though she didn't likes it so that she could afford the best education for her daughter. She use the money and send her to Methodist Girls' School. She also send her daughter to art, piano, and ballet classes at the Community Centre, and paid for her chinese tution. She paid for her daughter's classes by herself, without her husband giving a cent.
She bought a new flat in bedok, by herself - her husband didn't pay a single cent. But her husband sold her new flat and asked her to get a new one. She fled, but when she left the building, she heard her daughter screaming and felt water droplets on her neck, she knew that the droplet wasn't her daughter's tears, and yet, she will went back.
She does not want her daughter to go to Uganda, she is worried that her daughter would suffer there. She told her daughter that in Uganda there is no future, and no money, no pay.
She also told her daughter that "When you have no financial independence, you have no weapon, no shield, stuck with a bad husband and have bad jobs."
She forbid her daughter from going to Uganda but her daughter say that its a calling from the god and there's fire in her bones, and if she doesn't go, she will just burn and die.
She asked her daughter to stay but two months later, she woke up and her daughter is gone.