Sunday Morning

Carr, Pat

Primary Category: Literature / Fiction

Genre: Short Story

Annotated by:
Squier, Harriet
  • Date of entry: Nov-24-1998

Summary

Sunday Morning is a short story about childbirth. In this story the mother is assaulted by the lights, sounds, and ritual of the delivery room. She is strapped to a table and forced to endure indignity, labor pains, and muscle cramps only to have her newborn child taken away from her. At the end of the story the narrator claims possession of her newborn son, excluding her husband from ownership, despite her sense that this child is a stranger to her.

Commentary

Although this story is a bit dated, and the author's agenda to present childbirth in a hospital setting as an assault on mothers is fairly blatant, nevertheless, it demonstrates how women in labor were treated in the not so distant past. It is also facilitates consideration of the depersonalization that often occurs in the childbirth setting today.

Primary Source

The Women in the Mirror

Publisher

Univ. of Iowa Press

Place Published

Iowa City, Iowa

Edition

1977

Page Count

3