Titles are hard version 2.0

Throughout Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, Karr’s Mother has a number of episodes due to her Nervousness, whether it be flying off the handle about something as small as something not straightened up, or something bigger like her closet drinking problem. Her Mother hardly seems easy to get along with, let alone live with. Though Karr mostly shows contempt for her Mother, she proves that she has unconditional love for her through her actions.

Karr writes “After they took Mother Away, I sank into a fierce lonesomeness for her that I couldn’t paddle out of into other things.” (158). Mary’s Mother at this point has just gone completely “Nervous” as the book would describe and burned down many of the things making up Mary and Lecia’s childhood. In my opinion it would be hard to miss anyone including a mother after something as traumatizing as that, especially if we already had a rocky relationship. And their relationship definitely wasn’t perfect, and Karr even shows that part of her isn’t sure about wanting her back when they are going to see her. Karr writes, “I finally told Daddy I didn’t want Mother to come home if she was gonna go crazy all over again, just because we hadn’t cleaned our room” (171). As the reader, I’m unsure about whether this is actually Mary’s indecision about her Mother coming home, or her fear that her Mother will come home just as Nervous as when she left. Nevertheless, Karr begins to miss her mother so much that nothing around her can pull her out of this loneliness that she is feeling. Her situation isn’t helped by any of the neighborhood kids since the local trend (even adults do it) is to label anyone’s faults no matter how hurtful it could be to them or their family. Due to this, kids are constantly making fun of her because of her mother. Ironically it ends up being her distraction from her Mother for awhile. This distraction doesn’t last long as she ends up sinking back into loneliness just days later.

Karr later writes "I would like to claim that I worried the bone of this choice a long time, but I did not. In an eye's blink, I killed the very sister who'd taken my place in the bullets path"(pg 255). While the first quote shows that Mary becomes very lonesome without her mother, this proves her unconditional love for her. She has decided that even through everything her mother does, she would choose to have her live over her sister. This comes as a surprise since Lecia is the only one who can really help Mary deal with their Mother. Throughout the book Lecia helps Mary through some of the difficulties with their mother. It seems ironic that she'd rather have the reason for her family's dysfunction live over one of her few outlets.

Mary’s Mother has a lot of problems as far as being Nervous goes. Mary shows that even at her young age at the time she’s trying to deal with her mother’s problems and enjoys having her around. Though Karr mostly shows contempt for her Mother, she proves that she has unconditional love for her through her actions. This is thoroughly proven throughout the book especially at the times when she is away at the ward and in times of haste.