A Mothers Love
Megan Barbee
English 1302.340

February 19, 2015
Prof. Wilkinson

Not everyone has it easy today, or even back in the days. We see in “Puppy” by George Saunders, he shows how the two families live different life styles by using irony, point of view, and the themes of the story. By using these different ways to tell the story, the reader can get a better understanding on what is going on and to show the divergence of the two households. The style of writing he uses in the story also relates to what the story is about in as little as two words. An analysis of the story reveals the differences between the lives of two very different mothers and how they chose to raise their children.
Saunders write this short story in third person to try to get the readers to understand the differentiation in the lifestyles of these two families. By saying “so her mother could go right ahead and claim that she was spoiling the kids. These were not spoiled kids. These were well-loved kids. At least she’d never left one of them standing in a blizzard for two hours after a junior-high dance. At least she’d never drunkenly snapped at one of them” (Saunders174), I think that the author used this point of view to not make it seem opinionated or biased towards one family and to show how different each family is . Showing that we can read their emotions and thoughts without feeling like someone is trying to make us feel bad for one side, making it easier for readers to comprehend what is actually going on.
The irony in the story really shows how people can say things without realizing how hypocritical they sound. One of the mothers, Marie, says “thank you lord she thought as the Lexus flew through the corn field. You have given me so much: struggles and the strength to overcome them; grace and new chances every day to spread grace around” (Saunders174), which is ironic because it is a counterpoint to the other mother, Callies, actual life. Marie who is the mother who has a very good life, talks rudely about the other family but shortly realizes that when she was growing up that she had a not so easy life herself. It does not make sense how she could judge this people so easily when she at one point in her life was struggling like them. Today I see many people judge others when they really do not know the whole story or the reasons why they do the things they do. Throughout the story we see that Callie chains up her son Bo to a tree, knowing if someone saw this at any point in their life they would have reacted the same way as Marie did, but if she would have asked the mother as to why he was chained up then maybe she would be a little more understanding considering that she has kids herself.
The theme of the story is that you should not judge people by the way they act, think, live, and etcetera because how they act in the world can explain what is really going on when no one is around. Also the theme could be love is confusing, messy and