Effects

Question 1

How are themes of loss, memory and absence shown?

Answer 1

• The speaker also recalls his mother’s similar response to losing her husband. Through this intimate portrait, “Effects” shows how memory can in some ways bring us closer to our loved ones than we felt in life.
• It’s implied that the speaker sees his mother better once she’s gone. The speaker recalls their mom having a similar experience while grieving her husband: while her husband was alive, she never wore her “rings”.

Question 2

Describe the poem?

Answer 2

The speaker grapples with the loss of his mother and describes the largely unexpressed love that ran beneath their years of conflict

Question 3

Describe the title of the poem

Answer 3

The poem’s title, “Effects,” has a double meaning. It describes the “little bag” of personal effects the speaker collects after his mother’s death, but also her various effects on the speaker’s life.

Question 4

How are the themes of Mothers, Children, and Family Dynamics shown?

Answer 4

• Deep love that can survive even lifelong family conflicts.
• This struggle to communicate doesn’t mean love wasn’t there
• Wherever love exists, the poem implies, it will show itself eventually—but sometimes in unhealthy ways and sometimes too late.

Question 5

How are themes of Class Divisions and Generation Gaps shown?

Answer 5

• The mother and child in “Effects” feel a generation gap, which seems to stem partly from social class and education.
• She remains fundamentally suspicious of other people, especially those from different walks of life. Rather than gaining a tolerant, humanistic perspective
• We may look back critically on these things but we can’t make a clean break from them—any more than we can stop being our parents’ children.