Loss of Freedom

Freedom is recognized as a fundamental human right. Everyone wants to make their own choices, have autonomy. However not everyone has freedom around the world. There are many causes for this. The largest recognized cause being governmental issues, with many countries having dictatorships/ authoritarians, unitary states, or totalitarian rules. However this isn’t the only way freedom can be lost. You can lose freedom to society by committing a crime, you could lose creative freedom on a project, or you could lose freedom to travel or make changes due to a commitment. For this example, we will discuss the latter, losing the freedom to change due to commitments.

The poem Daystar written by Rita Dove shows the loss of freedom through motherhood. This poem describes how a mother does not get alone time due to her role. However there is one hour while her kids sleep where she sits in a chair behind her garage watching the nature around her and thinking. The poem describes this thinking as building a castle for just her to be alone. The poem then explains how she is then sucked back into her role as a mother when her daughter wakes from her nap. The poem then shifts to night with the mother in bed with her husband. He grabs her in his sleep showing how even when sleeping she still is pinned to domestic life and has no privacy or freedom anymore. It closes with the mother imagining her castle again, going to bed with the longing to be free to make decisions again without the pressures of domestic life.

This poem relates to the struggles of Fiona Gallagher in the popular TV show Shameless: US where Fiona had to sacrifice her childhood and freedom in her adult life to take care of her five younger siblings. This show shows the struggle Fiona has navigating her early twenties in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in Chicago, while trying to make ends meet for her siblings. This goes about showing how difficult it can be in a motherly position, and the sacrifices Fiona had to make to take care of her family. Some of these losses and sacrifices include; not completing high school, not being able to move away to pursue job options or a better lifestyle, and not being able to have many serious relationships due to her being unable to move into another person’s house, while the serious relationships she does have being self sabotaged by her due to her trauma and lifestyle.

These both show how motherhood can impact a person's freedom. With "Daystar" showing motherhood of a young child and the life of a stay-at-home mom. Meanwhile "Shameless: US" depicts the struggles of an older sister forced to take on the role of mother to a low-income family. These two show two very different forms of motherhood, however the result is the same. Both women feel exhausted by their role and wish to get out and time for themselves, however their families rely on them too much for them to be able to get away. In "Shameless: US" this causes strain between Fiona and her brother Lip, because Fiona wanted to be able to live her own life without having to care for her siblings, but every time she tried that responsibility fell on Lip causing him to resent Fiona at multiple point throughout the show. 

I resonate with these examples because I have seen how tiring motherhood can be at some points through watching my mother and my friends' mothers. It can be hard when there are so many expectations for you to meet to be labeled a good mom or wife. I can imagine it is also a hard adjustment to have a kid and can take a long time getting used to taking care of a human being. I like Fiona have a younger sibling, and although I only have one compared to her five, I too try to help and protect my brother and feel responsibility for him like she does her siblings.

Citations

  • Dove, Rita. “Daystar.” Collected Poems, 1974–2004, W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.

  • Shameless. Developed by John Wells, based on the series by Paul Abbott, Showtime, 2011–2021.

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