• 영어영문학
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• 제56권2호
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• pp.357-382
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• 2010

Motherhood as an ideological construction has been regarded as an oppressing apparatus enforced by patriarchism. On the one hand, demystifying motherhood helps expose dehumanization of women, and accordingly liberate women from being an ideal mother. On the other hand, however, feminists' attempts to unearth the distorted images of mothers result in devaluation of such values as love and sacrifice attached to motherhood. "Tell Me a Riddle" by Tillie Olsen, who is a declared socialist as well as a feminist, occupies a significant position in a sense that it neither condemns motherhood as evil nor idealizes it. Through the main character, Eva, it examines the meaning of motherhood in a way that a real mother experiences it in a real life, and thus Olsen challenges the readers to ponder upon the mothers' dilemma: a conflict between a desire for self-fulfillment and sacrifice for others. Eva, a mother of seven grown-up children, and now dying, shows an ambivalent attitude toward motherhood. She realizes that she is a victim of idealized motherhood in that, toward the end of her life, she feels uncomfortable accepting her personal desires as they are. Yet at the same time, she appreciates her experiences as a mother in that she could consume her passion for the ideals as she has spent her youth working toward, trying to construct an idealistic socialist country. Eva's real ideal, as a human being, is to live "with" others, not just "for" others. In other words, she does not want to allow herself to live only for others in the name of the mother because she does not have any alternatives to do otherwise. Rather, she desires to live a life of voluntary sacrifice and love. In this way, through Eva, Olsen tries to help us to construct a community where we--not just mothers-can live "with" others.