Analysis Of Good Bones By Lucille Clifton

There is no single way to be a mother. Nor will any two parenting styles be exactly the same. The poems “wishes for sons” by Lucille Clifton, “Good Bones,” by Maggie Smith, and “Buen Esqueleto” by Natalie Scenters-Zapico make this fact clear. Clifton’s poem beseeches sons to understand women’s experiences as they relate to bodily functions. Smith’s poem depicts a mother protecting her children from the horrors of the world, and Scenters-Zapico’s speaker, in contrast, does not try to hide the world from her children but shows it to them plainly in order to protect them. Each of the three poems presents a different approach to motherhood while remaining united in their desire to raise their children to have a good future. The tones of the three

The speaker details many of the dangers of society, and the brevity of life in general, but remarks how she will hide them all from her children. Even though “[t]he world is at least / fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative / estimate,” she’ll “keep this from [her] children” (Smith, lines 5-7). The speaker of the poem aims to protect her children by hiding the true magnitude of heinous things in the world. It’s through this protection that she hopes her children will have a better, more positive view of the world. The speaker’s hopeful tone is most evident in the last lines of the poem, where she asserts, “This place could be beautiful, / right? You could make this place beautiful” (16-17). Despite her having little hope in the state of the world herself, the speaker believes that the way she is raising her children will help them improve the world. Smith’s poem is filled with protectiveness and optimism that is reflected in the type of mothering that values shielding their child’s

The poem illustrates an immigrant mother’s brutal honesty with her daughters to protect them from the evils of the country they live in. The speaker expresses, “This world tells them I hate you every day / & I don’t keep this from mis hijas” (Scenters-Zapico, lines 6-7). She utilizes this harsh statement to show that the world is a dark, unfair place that shouldn’t be concealed for the benefit of young minds. The speaker is honest with her daughters to protect them in the long run because there is always a risk, no matter how young they are. This is expounded upon in the lines “[i]t’s not my job to sell / them the world, but to keep them safe / in case I get deported” (15-17). The tone is especially blunt in the mother’s declaration that she values keeping her children safe over selling the world to them. She does not hide the cruel realities behind a smokescreen to protect their innocence, but rather gives her daughters the truth to help them survive. The tone of Scenters-Zapico’s poem is bleak and direct to convey how an immigrant mother must protect her children by being open with them about the dangers they face at the hands of the