"Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters" because otherwise an evil spirit will take over their minds
Q & A about "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying"
Why/how do
Ronnie and her “mom” exist so peacefully in the ending of this story?
Throughout "Mothers, Lock up Your Daughters" we see the spirit known as "mom" try to infiltrate the minds of best friends Mini, Caroline, and Ronnie. Each of the girls initially is looking for a mother figure in their lives, so they welcome this spirit into their minds. All have their own struggles, and see this as a way to escape their lives to an extent. Eventually, Mini and Caroline start to see how wrong it is to have "mom" in their heads, and they force her to leave. Ronnie ends up carrying "mom" in her head and walking away completely from her previous life, ruining all chances of going back.
Even though the pure evil of the “mom” is
described in previous places, in this final scene of the story Ronnie seems to be glad to
have her controlling her mind. It is possible that Ronnie has lost all hope and
sense of reality about what is means to be happy, or that she has simply
learned to love the evil that her “mom” is. It seems that her “mom” has infiltrated
her mind to the point that she doesn’t have control over her thoughts or
actions anymore, but she thinks that she does, giving the illusion that they
are working together, despite is being a completely one-sided partnership. Previously
in the story when we see “mom”, the characters all dislike her to an extent,
because they still have enough control over their thoughts to see the evil in
her and be aware of the evil that she is attempting to put into them. Similar
to an unhealthy relationship in our world, it seems that while everyone on the
outside can see how dangerous this situation is for Ronnie, and how much “mom”
is hurting her, Ronnie, the person being affected most by this can’t see the
evil in “mom” or inside of her own self.
Another thing that may be keeping
Ronnie “happy” in this situation is the comfort she gains from “mom”. She has
never had a true mother figure in her life, guiding her through situations and
loving her. Her perception of a healthy relationship between a mother and
daughter has been influenced only by what she sees in “mom”, and because she
doesn’t know anything else, this seems normal to her, and she has learned to
deal with it and draw security from it, because she has nothing else in her
life to depend on.
Ronnie could also feel like because of
this thing that she’s done, her entire existence has been turned evil, and she
will never be able to regain status as a “good” person through forgiveness or
love from her previous family. Because of this bad choice she has made, she
feels like she has categorized herself as an “evil” person, and therefore has
no choice but to pursue evil things. This is why she has turned to “mom” who
she knows is evil but feels like the only thing that Ronnie deserves. She can’t
see how she could ever be a good person again, so she gives up and turns to
evil things to fill herself up and give a purpose to her life.
All of these things that may be
contributing to Ronnie’s acceptance and coexistence with “mom” demonstrate the
amount of control that “mom” has over Ronnie’s mind by the end of the story. The
relationship in this story, though it couldn’t happen in our world, seems to represent
many characteristics of an unhealthy relationship. I think similar to some toxic
relationships, Ronnie could be happy in this situation, despite the obvious
issues with it.
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