The story of Mildred Pierce, in both Joan Crawford’s film and Kate Winslet’s HBO miniseries, is the saga of a mother who does everything for her daughter, Veda. But the crucial element is her relationship with her son, Ray (a minor but significant character). Mildred’s neglect of Ray (he dies young from pneumonia while she is distracted by her business and Veda’s demands) highlights a tragic truth: the mother-son bond is often secondary to the mother-daughter bond in patriarchal narratives. Sons are either idealized or smothered; they are rarely simply seen .
No literary analysis of this topic can begin without Lawrence’s 1913 masterpiece. Sons and Lovers is the ur-text of modern mother-son conflict. Gertrude Morel, a refined, intelligent woman trapped in a brutish marriage, transfers all her emotional and intellectual hopes onto her son, Paul. She doesn’t smother him with cruelty, but with love. Lawrence writes, “She was a woman of unusual intelligence, and she wanted a son who would be a man in the world.” real indian mom son mms upd
A more contemporary and redemptive take, this film contrasts sharply with Psycho . Here, the mother (Linda) is not a monster, but she is a realist. She leaves because she cannot survive the poverty. The true mother-son dynamic is between Chris Gardner (Will Smith) and his son, but it is a father performing the traditionally "motherly" role of nurturer and protector. The story of Mildred Pierce, in both Joan
