The Sunday Following Mother's Day

The short story The Sunday Following Mother's Day by Edward Jones is told in the third person omniscient view. The story is about a family where the mother is stabbed to death by the father and the two young children, Madeline and Samuel, are then taken care of by their aunt Maddie. The first of the story is told in the perspective of the aunt. Maddie would take her niece and nephew to see their father who served time in prison for the murder he committed. Maddie would never speak to her brother when they went to visit him, she only still brought his children to see him because they were family. "I wouldn't have taken you if it was up to me, Maddie would one day tell her niece. But you and him was tied to each other by blood and there was nothin I could do about that." This shows how Maddie had a lot of anger towards her brother, but still tried to keep the family together. Madeline actually followed the words that her aunt said to her. She always wrote letters to her father and never showed anger towards him, unlike her brother Sam. He couldn't understand how she could even still want to write to him after he killed their mother. Madeline always wanted to ask her father why he killed her mother, but she never did. Throughout the story she is trying to overcome the tragedy that she has faced as a child. When her father does get out of jail and comes to visit her on the Sunday following Mother's Day, Madeline is faced with her anger for the first time. She is trapped by the anger that she has for what he has done and cannot stand to be around him after seeing him or even have any sympathy for him.