How does Mothers by Machado explore the effects of abusive relationships and trauma?

Reading Mothers felt like stepping into a dream that slowly turns into a nightmare one of those dreams where you know something is wrong, but you can’t quite figure out what until it’s too late. This story I had to read it 2 times it hard to understand one time. The story follows a woman reflecting on her past relation with Bad, an ex-girlfriend who was very controlling and abusive. At the same time, she’s has been given a child. A lot of strange events, and emotions makes it feel like the narrator is trapped in her past, unable to escape Bad’s.

One of the lines that really hit me was when the narrator says, “She loved me, she said. She would take care of me. She would kill me.” That the kind of love where suffocates you. The way Bad treated her wasn’t just toxic; it rewired the way she understood love and care. Even when she’s no longer with Bad, she questions how to love the child she’s been given. “I try to love her the way Bad loved me, but I do not know if that is right.” That got me. Imagine trying to love someone but how can you love if you have never experince that.

The parts of the story, like how the child appears in her life, feel like a metaphor for trauma. Bad never really left, it’s like if she’s still there. She has that mark that has not left. Trauma does that. It stays with you, creeping into places it doesn’t belong, making you doubt yourself even when you know you’re free.

My images I picked

I picked these 2 images because love is like you planting something. It takes a lot. In the first image, you need you, and someone else to have the standing in growing. The second one you have to wet the love in order to grow

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