Our Town Essay, Research Paper
Most people try to forget the past especially the bad things. When you look back you think of all the good that there was, but with the play ?Our Town? it makes you think back to that one time when you ask your mother how pretty you are and the reasons you ask it. In Thornton Wilders play ?Our Town?, Thornton shows how girls have no self-confidence when they our growing up. The one character, Emily, asks her mother if she was pretty and for most young girls they ask the same thing. It seems like every mother will say the same thing, yes. After asking you not sure why you ask to you mother because she is you mother and in her eye you are the most beautiful person on the face of this earth. Thornton Wilder writes it like this with
Emily: Mama, am I good looking?
Mrs. Webb: Yes, of course you are. All of my children have good features; I?d be ashamed if they hadn?t.
Emily: Oh, Mama, that?s not what I mean. What I mean is: am I pretty?
Mrs. Webb: I?ve already told you, yes. Now that?s enough of that you have a nice young pretty face. I never heard of such foolishness.
Emily: Oh, Mama, you never tell us the truth about anything.
Mrs. Webb: I am telling you the truth.
Emily: Mama, were you pretty?
Mrs. Webb: Yes, I was, if I do say it. I was the prettiest girl in town next to Mamie Cartwright.
Emily: But, Mama, you?ve got to say something about me. Am I pretty enough? to get anybody ?to get people interested in me?
Mrs. Webb: Emily, you make me tried. Now stop it. You?re pretty enough for all normal purposes. ?Come along now and bring that bowl with you.
Emily: Oh, Mama, your no help. (Pg. 30-31.)
Emily doesn?t think her mother help her with what see said, which most children don?t. Emily thought her mother would give her more then just a motherly put of view and that was all she gave her. Many children go to there parents to help them to tell them what they want to hear and most of the times they get mad when they don?t hear what they want.
Girls have a fear of self-confidence at a young age. No matter how pretty you are you always feel as if you are the most ugly girl in the on earth. At these young ages children have a way of saying things that will hurt you. When you are younger you take things that your siblings say to heart, even if they don?t mean to hurt you. It has been said if a boy like you the will be mean to you, when you are growing up you don?t understand this and you wonder why they are picking on you. Your best friends will try to tell you stuff to help you, like with fashion or other little things, but you take it as if they are putting you down. You always feel that all the other kids are better then you even though they might fell the same way as you. Girls don?t want to talk about this because they fell as if they are the only ones felling this way. When you are young you do not want to anyone to think you are different so you keep things locked up inside.
When I look back to when I was nine I can remember how lonely I felt. I had a good home with a loving mother, but it never seemed as if I was good at anything. My friend would always tell me how my hair was out of style and my nose was too big, they properly meant this to help me, but it never seem to give me any help, instead I would go home and cry. I was always the tallest person in the class, taller then al the boys, so it never seemed as if I could find a boyfriend that was not scared of me. This did nothing for my self-esteem, boys always pick on me as if I were a monster or something.
I can remember when I was about nine years old asking this question and my mother said the exacted same thing to me. My mother always told me how pretty I was and what good features I had, but it never seemed like I could get a boyfriend or be as popular as all the rest of the kids. It wasn?t till recently that I found a boyfriend that cares for me and makes me fell like I am pretty, also that I have enough self confidence to do and say anything. When I was in school I never had a boyfriend it always seemed like my friends would get the guys I wanted or always had a guy that would treat them right. I never had a guy that I liked look my way, never the less ask me out, I always thought that I was the most ugly person around.
I was always picked on when I was younger the kid would treat me so bad I would go home and cry. They would always pick on me because of my hair or my nose or just the way I looked I would look at myself and not think anything was wrong but then they would say these things and it would hurt. I made my mom go and get me the most expensive clothes so I would fit in. I tried to be like the rest of the kids so I would stop being picked on. I had a lot of friends, but I always thought I was not popular enough, so I would try harder. I would lost a lot of friends because I tried to hard to be more popular. When I look back I wish I would have never try as hard and just listen to the friends I had and not the ones that would tell me how I could be better. The people that picked on me got to me when they should not have. When I was younger I should have not listen to the people that hurt me and listen to the people who loved and cared for me. There are a lot of thing I wish I would have done differently, but I was a child and I didn?t know any better. When children get hurt as much as I did you wish that some thing could change. The children of today are the same, if not worst then they were year ago. They need guidance for the hurt go thought.
Parents need to be more aware of their child?s needs and how they are feeling. Emily?s mother had to many things on her mind to help her child. Even though the play was set back in 1901it seem like children are not being listen today. I understand that back in the early nineties parents didn?t listen to there children, but it seem as if no one is listening to there children today. It is very hard on kid when they are young and they need someone to help and listen to the things that they want to talk about. Now a days it seems like parent are working too much and don?t have enough time with there children. I always had a mother that I could say anything to, but I still had a lot of hard times because I need not feel like I could tell my mother everything I felt like she would look down on me. Now that I look back I know that I could have told my mother everything and she would have not thought of me any different. When you are a child you do not know how other people think of you. So you look up to you parent to help you find out. With the parents working so much it is hard for the parents to be around the house, nevertheless listen to their children.
Children what to hear what they want to hear, not what there parents tell them. When they ask their parents a question like are they pretty they want to hear that they are not. Children don?t want their parents to tell them they are pretty because they are their parents. Parents think that their children are the
prettiest children on the face of the earth, so when they are ask a question about how pretty their children are they say the truth. The children think that their parents are telling them that because they are their parents.