James and Octavia’s relationship characterizes a unique paradigm of mother and son affection. Simultaneously, she must also fill in the fatherly love James is deprived of due to his father’s absence, which plays an important role in how she raises James. A mother’s love is unconditional and nurturing, however, Octavia provides a “harsh” standard of love with the expectation that James will mature into an independent man. At a young age, James learned to display no gesture of vulnerability. As much as he wishes to convey love to his mother, he need to refrain because, she says, “that’s weakness and that’s crybaby stuff” (1). Specifically, James provides a flashback to the time he captured two red birds as pets and Octavia pressured him to slaughter them so that there would be food. Certainly she can manage to slaughter the birds herself, but Octavia slapped him repeatedly when he refused. She only halted the slapping when he finally killed it. For an eight-year-old boy, this was a gruesome scene. In that moment, James could not fathom why she had compelled him to do it because there was no explanation provided for him. Afterwards, with the assistant from his Aunt and Monsieur Bayonne, James realizes that he must fend for he and family incase “she had to go away like Daddy” …show more content…
From this, readers perceive Octavia’s love for James is comparable to any mother; as a result, she preferred him to be capable of acting in a rational manner rather than allowing emotions to be