Title Rae Spoon’s song “God Was on Your Shoulders” is a cohesive narrative illustrating the major parental relationships in the narrator’s life. Specifically, the effect religion had on shaping said relationships. Throughout the narrator’s life, the persons that are supposed to love and support them abuse and neglect them under the banner of religious righteousness. Though seeming rather personal “God Was on Your Shoulders” directly reflects on religion as a personal justification for abusive behavior as illustrated by the relationship between the narrator and their parents, and the relationship between the mother and others.
The relationships between parent and child in “God Was on Your Shoulders” involve three major stages; the rise of the …show more content…
The narrator’s mother’s faith in the church is strong enough that they reject their own child. They “lived without a mother”(18) because of this. However, the narrator’s love for their mother is unconditional “if I had my way I wouldn’t have to choose” (19) even while the mother’s is conditional on the child 's adherence to church doctrine, as she evidently loved God and religion more than her own child. The speaker in “God Was on Your Shoulders” recounts the life of their mother and how she pertains to their life. The point of view offers a limited perspective on the events that occur in the mother’s life, but the information given about her relationships is valuable in that it offers insight into the reasons for her later actions. From the first lines of the poem, the vulnerability of the mother is stressed. She is only “21 years old” (1) at the birth of the narrator; the significance of her youth is emphasized by referring to her as a child in the second sentence. Therefore she was impressionable, young and also lacked parental guidance. The mother’s “father left [her] like his failed
The relationships between parent and child in “God Was on Your Shoulders” involve three major stages; the rise of the …show more content…
The narrator’s mother’s faith in the church is strong enough that they reject their own child. They “lived without a mother”(18) because of this. However, the narrator’s love for their mother is unconditional “if I had my way I wouldn’t have to choose” (19) even while the mother’s is conditional on the child 's adherence to church doctrine, as she evidently loved God and religion more than her own child. The speaker in “God Was on Your Shoulders” recounts the life of their mother and how she pertains to their life. The point of view offers a limited perspective on the events that occur in the mother’s life, but the information given about her relationships is valuable in that it offers insight into the reasons for her later actions. From the first lines of the poem, the vulnerability of the mother is stressed. She is only “21 years old” (1) at the birth of the narrator; the significance of her youth is emphasized by referring to her as a child in the second sentence. Therefore she was impressionable, young and also lacked parental guidance. The mother’s “father left [her] like his failed