Mother Sauvage

Being a wife and a mother is a significant role of a woman that cannot be paid by anyone. It was a purpose and a journey that needs entire love, patience, and kindness. These women make sure that their family will not get hurt and will be able to be loved and nurtured by them. However, there are certain situations that will test their limitations and patience. Most of the women say, “You can hurt me many times, but not any of my family.” Therefore, no matter how soft and loving heart a mother has, she will remain tough and strong for her family especially when it came to the point of hurting them.

The story is about the life of being a mother despite of all the pains and how she gave justice to family that was killed by the people who went to her house and lived like her sons. It was very hard for Mother Sauvage to compose herself so that the Prussians would not think that she was the mother of the man they killed. Mother Sauvage thought that the death of her husband made her numb but when she knew that her son was killed, the same old feeling of loneliness, pain, and sorrow went through her nerves again – flowing like running water in the river.

Mother Sauvage learned to love the four Prussians who went to her house and stayed but when she knew that they were the one who killed her son, she doesn’t know what to so but to accept them to her house and not to show her real feelings of sadness and anger. Regardless of all her fears and envy towards her boarders because of what they have done to her son, she remained calm and aware of her plans for the justice of her son and husband’s death.

Mother Sauvage was not an ordinary mother. This story was not just a story of motherhood but also a story of womanhood. Even if mother Sauvage was very numb with her husband and son’s death, she continued to make herself relieved and think of the family of those four Prussians died in her house. It was a tragic but a realistic story because I can say that it can happen to any mother who experienced this kind of pain and maybe, not only this kind of things will happen to the killers, but more brutal than that especially when they were in your house. Seeing and serving the people who killed your family will bring you a catastrophic feeling that will lead to brutal killings just to give justice to you and your son and husband.

According to Tannenhauser, the work of mothers does not offer “promotions, raises or any other tangible and ego-gratifying perks available in other professions” (Tannenhauser, 1996, p. 119) This magnificent responsibility of mothers cannot be compared to any other professions because it is a lifetime profession that cannot be quitted by mothers when they were tired. Mother Sauvage was like that.

Even if her son left him and joined the military, she remained hopeful that one day, her son will go back into her arms like a child who used to run to his mother when he is tired. However, though it did not happen, she made her own decision of making her son and husband at peace in their death by obliging herself to make their own justice even if it will put her into death.

A mother will always a mother and a wife will always be a wife unless you take away her son and husband away from her. Being a wife and a mother is played by women who choose to love and nurture their family instead of nurturing their selves. This major responsibility will put women to the top of the mountain and live as a queen when they perform their tasks as best as they could. This is when the members of their family are respectful, loving, and generous people.

Works Cited

De Maupassant, Guy. The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant. New York: Collier,    1903

Tannenhauser, Carol. Motherhood stress. In K. S. Bahr, A. Hawkins, & S. Klein (Eds.),             Readin