The Mother of The Child in Question - Essay

Mathias S. Larsen Hjørring Gymnasium og HF-kursus 20. Marts 2015

Essay on “The Mother of the Child in Question”

The short story “The Mother of the Child in Question” is written by Doris Lessing, and it is a part of a collection of short stories named “London Observed - Stories and Sketches”, written in 1992. In the collection of short stories, in this collection Doris mainly writes about London and its inhabitants. Family and different family types are common matters in today’s society, we are all absorbed into the multicultural and -ethnic society, where we have to respect each others norms and heritages. the short story “The Mother of the Child in Question” is a text where we meet a very peculiar family.

The short story takes place in a ghetto in what appears to be the outskirts of London. The description of the environment indicates that it takes place in 21st century or in the late 90’s, because of the huge grey apartment blocks with the smell of urine. Stephen Bentley has an appointment with the family that lives in number 15 on the eighth floor. Stephen is a social worker who has been working job for a long time. He is used to walking around the empty filthy streets everyday, and visiting families who need help to fit in the society. Stephen is a calm man while listening to Mrs Khan yelling in Urdu, you get sympathy for Stephen for having the ability not to get emotional during the rant. Hassan, the son of Mrs Khan, translates back and forth between Stephen and Hassan’s Mother as they try to communicate. Hassan goes to The Beavertree School, and his sister is kept at home because Mrs Khan does not want her to attend school even though she says that she must go to the same school as Hassan. Mrs Khan is very stubborn, because she does not want to realize the fact that her daughter, Shireen, is a challenged child, and therefore needs to go to a special school. Hassan is very helpful, but he does not want to disappoint his mother, so he keeps quiet about his sister, but inside he knows that she is simple-minded. Mrs Khan made the home look stunningly nice for the visit of Stephen Bentley, this can be a symbol of her wanting to make a good impression to let Shireen attend The Beavertree School. London is one of the most multicultural capitals all over the world, so this incident is not striking to anybody. Stephen makes it sound like the denial of the mother is a cultural problem, that no daughter of her’s is going to no special school, while outbursting, “Bloody marvelous!” in the hallway, this is an expression of how much time he had wasted in there trying to make her see clearly.