The American Girl?

“Well my child, my gifts will serve as reminders for you if you are ever tempted to forget my lessons. If you fail to send me letters, or if those you send are not what they ought to be, I think the desk will cry shame upon you” (Warner 37).

Those are not words I would want to hear from my deathly ill mother. I was largely shocked by the demeanor of Mrs. Montgomery, who does not stray too far from her morals and upbringing when faced with the fact that she must soon abandon her daughter (perhaps for good). Instead of trying to cultivate a deeper bond with Ellen and give her knowledge that will help her survive, Mrs. Montgomery instills within her the notion that her love ultimately belongs with God and that she should never stray from the proverbial path. While some might see this gesture as noble and thoughtful, I found it to be completely ridiculous and incredibly cruel. Instead of trying to get to know Ellen better, Mrs. Montgomery simply buys her things. It looks like certain stereotypes about the inner-dynamics of wealthy American families have a long history.

Ellen clearly is an impressionable girl who does not want to disappoint her mother. It is a bit disturbing to see Ellen try to reconcile with the fact that her mother loves God more than she loves her. I was kind of hoping Ellen would become resilient and demand that her mother and father take her with them, or at least be more honest with her, however she was far too loyal and obedient to allow her personal feelings to take her over. These initial occurrences in the book regrettably give me hints of the various ways in which Ellen will continue to be oppressed to meet the standards of a Christian patriarchic society.

I think, to a certain extent, this traditional model of familial behavior still exists today –especially when it comes to the treatment of young girls. Having never grown up female and without sisters, much of my “education” regarding the development of girls into women has come from my mother, who has shared multiple stories of her childhood with me. In a very personal sense, I see part of my mother in Ellen. Without getting bogged down in the specifics, my mother’s biological father left her and her two brothers and mother when she was very young. My grandmother soon remarried a man who did not love my mother and her brothers, but would demand that they love him. He never spent any money my mom and uncles –each of them had to work their way through college. One of my uncles had it lucky, one night he got into a fight with his step-father and was able to leave the house, while my mom and her other brother had to remain. The worst part about her childhood, my mom would admit to me, was that she hated that her mother never stood up for her own children. Instead, she would always side with her husband. My mom would later state that these experiences she had as a young girl greatly affected her maturation into a woman –for both better and worse. I suppose thinking about my mom’s upbringing has made me view Ellen’s in a particularly skeptical way. I honestly hope something unexpectedly good happens to her character, but I have my doubts.