In
the Short story Mines by Susan
Straight, The main character Clarette narrates what she sees and feels all in a
few days. Her life is basically work and home. She works at a prison where it’s
a male dominated area. When she arrives home she is completely drained of
energy. In one passage, she states, “Sometimes they take so long to dry I just
sit down on the floor in front of the dryer and read the paper, cause I’m too
tired to go back out to the couch.” (Straight, paragraph 102). This reminds me
when my sister and I wouldn’t do the laundry and my mom would ask us to do it.
At first I hated having done this tedious chore. But after a while I got used
to it. Clarette, never considered asking her children to do such a thing. She
confronts all her life’s obstacles without giving up. Clarette accepts her life
the way it is and tries to better her children’s. She describes in cool terms
the tattoos of all the different ethnic gangs in the Youth Authority Facility. She
is very resigned to thee path the inmates are facing, referring to them as fools. Clarette doesn’t seem to say this
because of hatred. She considers them confused, a product of their environment,
but also as individuals who need to wake up and see the reality around them. Clarette
is just tired, and she just can't bring herself to get too involved but in an
ironic twist she will get hurt and cut, stopping a fight at the end of the
story. Immediately after this event she goes back into her monitoring station,
sits down and begins looking for an Upright piano for her son. In this image of Clarette, there is no dwelling
on what happened to her or how she might have gotten injured, she just continues
working. Most people would have resigned, I know I would have. This is the
irony of her story, she is tired, but she can’t stop. Clarette’s personal
struggles make me ponder if she will ever live a tranquil life. And find someone
to love and settle down. Because she sees how other’s lives are falling apart,
can she ever find the balance between her responsibilities as a prison guard
and as a mother?
I agree with you that their is a lot of irony in the story because of the struggle to have a work life balance. Clarette seems like she was a strong person trying to take on being a mother and be a prison guard but sometimes we can not manage too many obligations in life. Seeing the people in the prison must be a strong motivator to keep on moving forward in her life.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your point about Clarette calling the inmates fools. I agree that is was not out of hatred, but to distance herself. To answer you question, she could find that balance between work and family. She has to find that little bit of energy to follow through with the kids doing chores; however Clarette's kids could be too young to really be able to the chores because a teacher at school has to make sure that they get one the bus to come home and Ray is with Ray Jr. when he gets his hair cut. I had never thought about her life not being balanced. I figured that the prison just took a lot of her energy out because she had to stay so alert during her shits.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way of how Clarette looks at the prisoners! I didn't really think of that point of view. I also like your example of her hair being pulled out and how Clarette just moves on. And I agree with Lauren on the Balance situation. Her kids are so young, but they are so grown up mentally because of their environment. It's always tough taking care of little kids, but they grow up and take off that pressure everyday.
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