A Good Daughter

While reading “Beccah”, I really sympathized with Beccah. She was always so concerned for her mother and wanted the best for her mother. Beccah feared that her mother had been taking a turn for the worse when she confessed to killing Beccah’s father.

I think Beccah immediately assumed at that moment that her mother had literally and physically murdered her father. However, that was not the case as Beccah later came to find out that Beccah’s mother did not mean that she physically killed him. She had meant that she mentally killed him by wishing and praying for death upon him. Beccah had strong feelings that spirits would constantly take control over her mother and because of this, Beccah would often pray that her mother would get better and that the spirits would leave her mother alone so both Beccah and her mother could live their lives as peacefully and normally as they possibly could.

Beccah tried her best to help take care of her mother in any way, even by offering her half of her pig in a blanket and peanut butter cookie. She tried very hard to not eat it so she could save it for her mother but while waiting for her mother to stop dancing, Beccah eventually became hungry and to save the food from going to waste, she decided to finish the food of hers that she had been saving for her mother. Although her mother never got to eat that food, I still think Beccah had her heart in the right place by offering it to her mother.

By immediately offering the food to her mother before thinking of her own needs, it shows she was thinking of her mother’s best interests and it shows she did have good intentions by offering it to her mother in the first place. It showed she truly did care for her mother and I respect the character of Beccah for wanting to help her mother out in any way that she could. I think she was a really good daughter for being like that.

I think Beccah’s mother may have possibly suffered from some sort of depression or mental problem. Beccah pointed out that a lot of times her mother didn’t seem to be in her right state of mind. If Beccah’s mother did have some sort of depression or mental problem, perhaps the cause was from something that happened in her past that may have psychologically scarred her for life. I would have liked to known more detail on her mother’s past including her past relationship with her husband before he passed away. I think it would explain a lot about why she acts the way that she does.

Perhaps maybe the way she acted may have originated from a traumatic incident. Perhaps she was abused as a child or maybe her husband abused her which could possibly explain her animosity towards him when she would pray and wish for him to die. I think by knowing the history of Beccah’s mother’s life, the way she acts could be better analyzed.