Name Taciuc Valeria

Group ES24Z
November 25, 2015

Text analysis How We Kept Mothers Day

By Stephen Leacock
Leacock ,Stephen- a famous Canadian writer of the 20th century.His story,full of humour and
sarcasm,expose the contradictions of life in modern bourgeois society.The writer is famous for such
work as:Nonsnse Novels,Sunshine Sketches of Little Town,My Lost Dollar.
Leacock says that the basis of humour lies in the contrasts offered by life itself, but the deep
background that lies behind and beyond what we call humour is revealed only to the few who, by
effort ,have given thought to it.
The author titles his work as How We Kept Mothers Day. It is done explicitly,so we can
predict the conents of the text rather easily. Perhaps some family tells about the celebration of
Mothers day, because its a family holiday.
In Leacocks story, we will find numerous words and frases of informal functional style,e.g.all
that kind of thing- ,awfully becoming- ,a little bit-,have a big day- .
How We Kept Mothers Day is a humourous story.Humour in fiction may be of two
principal types.It may be humour of situation when the author makes us laugh at certain funny or
absurd facts.
There is also humour of words when the reader does not laugh at what is happening in the story but
at how it is put by the author.
The text begins with the preparation of Mothers Day. The family decides to thank the mother for
all that she had done for them ,that marks the exposition of this text .They plan a beautiful day
together but the organization of this day is done by the Mother and this represents the development
of the action.So,the climex is realized by the children and fathers leave among the hills without
bringing the mother. She stayed at home and got the dinner for her family. This texts finish with
grandest dinner cooked by the mother and the end of that celebration day. She thanks her family for
this wonderful day with tears in her eyes,and it marks the resolution of this story.
The story presents an interesting example of the indirect method of characterization.The author
does not say directly that the members of the family were selfish,callous and hard-hearted people
but makes them act and lets the reader draw his own conclusion.

The main figures are the mother and the father. The author emphasizes that the family is
conscious about the mothers role in their life by using inversion to describe it: how much Mother
had done for us for years, and all the efforts and that sacrifice she had made for our sake. Also he
shows the importance of Mothers Day with the help of comparison A day just like Xmas and
epithet such a big occasion.
Even if it is Mothers Day, it is the Mother who decorates the house because she always does it
at Xmas. This fact shows us that the members of the family love themselves more that the Mother.
We can say that she is devoted to her family, but doesnt think about herself at all because she does
all the hard work that her family could enjoy the day. As she is altruist, she refuses to buy some new
clothes. In order to show this fact the author uses oxymoron her old grey bonnet was awfully
becoming her, which is told by the girls.
Father was selfish like as the secondary characters children ,because they decided to change the
plan ,for to go the fishing instead to go driving into the country together with mother.They bought
presents for themselves on Mothers Day ,but bought nothing for their mother. There are a lot of
examples of irony, such as: We all felt that it would never do to let Father stay home, especially as
we knew, he would make trouble if he did; Will and I would have dropped out, but unfortunately
we wouldnt have been any use in getting the dinner. These examples show us that everybody
thinks not about Mother or dinner, but about themselves.
The place of action is done explicitly. The author shows a definite place with the help of such
key-words and phrases as I stayed home from college classes, into the country, to go fishing,
a lovely restful day around the house.
So we can suppose that the action takes place at home, then at the bank of the river. There re some
indications to the time of action. We can see that the story begins some days before Mothers day,
and lasts till the end of Mothers day.
The whole subject of this story figures around the theme: relationship among members of the
family.
As for the message of his story, I think the author wanted to point out that everything that mother
does is taken for admittedly and show us that the members of the family love themselves more than
mother that means that they were egoists and didnt respect her and didnt appreciate all her efforts.
This text is good example for me because it teches me how I shoudnt behave with my parents.
After all I understood that sometimes many of us do the same with their parents especially with
their mother,as these children.So,we must avoid this attitude toward our parents because thanks to
them we become a personality and all that we have are thanks to them.We must value our mothers
still they are alive.