Matchmaking

Brown, Stephany

Primary Category: Literature / Fiction

Genre: Short Story

Annotated by:
Squier, Harriet
  • Date of entry: Nov-23-1997

Summary

The socialite mother of a single middle aged woman with two children tries to set her daughter up with blind dates. The daughter repeatedly refuses, despite her mother's persistence and her inability to understand why any woman wouldn't want a man in her life. The first and only time the daughter dated one of these men she was raped. The reasons he was attractive to her mother--his looks, money, power, and influence--were the very reasons the daughter knew it was hopeless to press charges against him.

As the daughter continues to live her life, she finds herself perfectly content to focus on her job and children, and to never want to be involved with a man again. The daughter knows that as difficult as her life is, it is not fair to inflict her problems on her mother, who has her own problems with loneliness and alcohol, or on her young daughters, who need to grow up feeling happy and secure.

Commentary

This story provides insight into the complexities and loneliness inherent in family relationships, as a mother and daughter withhold truths from each other and deal with their problems in isolation. It is also an effective exploration of the issues of date rape and women's responses to it.

Primary Source

Room of One's Own

Publisher

The Growing Room Collective

Place Published

Vancouver

Edition

vol 16, No. 4, Dec.

Page Count

6