tional mothers possess intelligence, courage, and a gritty determination to survive, no matter how insurmountable the obstacles they face. What is more, in every story, mothers reach beyond survival to make their children's lives richer and wider than theirs have been. Sometimes they succeed; more often they fail. But even in failure, Olsen says, the most nourishing bread they give future generations is the coarse grain of their courageous effort. An important part of the task Olsen has set for herself is to acknowledge this nurturance. She does so by setting remembered moments of beauty and exaltation in mothers' lives in their context of pain and struggle.
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This combination of beauty and struggle is evident in a remarkable passage from Yonnondio, in which the rhythms of Olsen's prose transform work that might be seen only as absolute drudgery into grace. It is no accident, of course, that the work Olsen describes is that of preserving food. The scene occurs on an unbearably hot day in a long line of such days, and Anna is in her kitchen canning fruit, making jelly, and tending her children all at the same time. Here is a portion of that scene. Read aloud, its rhythms work their way into the body:
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| | In the humid kitchen, Anna works on alone. ... The last batch of jelly is on the stove. Between stirring and skimming, and changing the wet packs on Ben, Anna peels and cuts the canning peachestwo more lugs to go. If only all will sleep awhile. She begins to sing softlyI saw a ship a-sailing, a-sailing on the sea itclears her head. The drone of fruit flies and Ben's rusty breathing are very loud in the unmoving, heavy air. Bess begins to fuss again. There, there, Bessie, there, there, stopping to sponge down the oozing sores on the tiny body. There. Skim, stir; sprinkle Bess; pit, peel, and cut; sponge; skim, stir. Any second the jelly will be right and must not wait. Shall she wake up Jimmie and ask him to blow a feather to keep Buss quiet? No, he'll wake cranky, he's just a baby hisself, let him sleep. Skim, stir; sprinkle; change the wet packs on Ben; pit, peel and cut; sponge. This time it does not sootheBess stiffens her body, flails her fists, begins to scream in misery, just as the jelly begins to boil. There is nothing for it but to take Bess up, jounce her on a hip (there,
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