Awakened Motherhood amid of Tsunami , ‘Wave’ by Sonali Deraniyagala

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Everyone believes that mother is supreme. In the novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe, it is said that mother is supreme because she is there for you when you are in trouble. Mother’s immense love cannot be compared to anything; either in human world or animal world, mother is the one who takes care of the babies. She never abandons them until they are strong enough to face the world themselves. Mother’s priority is always her children above anything. We experience that instinctive nature of mother awakened in Sonali Deraniyagala in the extract ‘Wave’.

Naturally, mothers have the natural instinct which one may call the sixth sense; she feels if something dreadful is to happen to her kids. Instinctively she undertakes the responsibility of her children’s security between her wings. She believes that they are safer with her not anybody else. In the extract ‘Wave’ we see that genuine motherhood is aroused amid of faceless danger. When she sees the unknown face of danger, she naturally acts as a mother. She takes her children by her arms and flees. Although she knows that she slows down because of the children, she does not like to hand them over to anyone, not even Steve, her husband. Her husband is yelling behind her to give one of the children to him without any result. Although, the world believes that the father is the guardian of a family, in real world amid of a catastrophe mother is the one who care more about the children. The behaviour of Sonali is a graphic example of that very quality of motherhood.

Sometimes mothers prioritise their children above all. Some may be critical about the behaviour of Sonali leaving her parents behind though she could easily stop and knock at their room door. That may be true to an ordinary woman but one must understand that this is not an ordinary woman but a mother fleeing away to safeguard her children. Amid of a possible danger, mothers only take care of her children. The behaviour of Sonali is a crystal clear example for that. She bears only one thing in her mind, heart and soul; that is the safety of her kids. She stops nothing until she feels them secured. Reader can realise the truth of that fact when she repents over her parents after she feels her children are far away from danger. Therefore, the reader must empathise her motherhood. She acts only as a genuine mother not anybody else. 

In addition to that reality, reader can see how parents behave when the death is sneering at them. They never leave them nor let them go. In the story reader visualize how they lift their children up as higher as they could while they are being drowned by Tsunami flood. Parents never hesitate to give their lives for their children.

Tragically, she could not save either her children nor her husband resulting her to lose the way of life. If we read her memoir, we see that she tries to commit suicide several times. That shows that mothers’ world is fabricated around her family; especially children. Losing them means they lose their future and the present. No matter how rich or poor, children are the breath of their mothers.

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