It Takes A Village...

It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child. The view in the text of The Wide, Wide World is no different. In today's society we count on many different people to shape and raise our children on many different levels, shapes, and forms. We expect teachers to shape children in a way that parents can't. We send our kids to things like Sunday School and Vacation Bible School to get the Spiritual upbringing they need. (Although I feel like parents should play a role in this as well, but this is not often the case today.) We send our kids to other people's houses to embark on "play dates." This also helps to shape the type of young adult a child grows into. In this story Mrs. Montgomery sends her daughter on an errand that no eight year old would be expected to handle in today's world. This proves to be a daunting task for young Ellen. Yet, someone steps up to help her. This same gentleman continues to shower Ellen with the things she needs. If the only people we ever received opinions or advice from were our parents we'd all be running around as carbon copies of our parents. I do not think any parent wants that for their child. It takes a village...

I think parents are viewed as providers and figure heads to a certain extent in the context of this text. I get the feeling that Ellen's relationship with her mother is an exception to the rule, not the way that most daughter's and mother's feel about each other. Mr. Montgomery seems to have no problem just shipping Ellen off. She was a responsibility of his. He handed the responsibility off to someone else when he could no longer manage it.

Continuing on my previous statement, the text really puts the relationship on the mother. She is the one who is teaching the life lessons, and preparing Ellen to enter the wide, wide world. Mr. Montgomery is absent, but he is still feeling the burden of having a child. He provides food, shelter, clothing and a roof over her head, until he of course ships her off to his sister.

Ellen views her mother as her everything. She is the person she serves from the moment she wakes up until she goes to bed. Some might say that Ellen's mother is her God. She adores her, she worships her, she hangs on her every word. Ellen wants nothing more than to please her mother and to give her everything she needs. Ellen seems to fear her father. She waits until he has left before she will show her face. She dare not have him see her cry. I don't see Ellen viewing her father as her "daddy" in the respect that she sees her mother as her "mama." The relationships are completely different. Her father is well simply just her biological father. He simply just takes her of her well being.

Ellen is going to be raise by the village, not by her own parents. Her mother is soon going to, well, die and her father will presumably continue to be absent. I see those around her rising up to help her along and continue on her journey to become a young lady.