Part Six, Family Summary and Analysis

Anne talks about spending a day on the beach with her mother. She says she spends most of her time being annoyed because her mother seems so frail and needy. She says things that annoy her include her mother wearing a heavy sweater though the day is warm and that she has lipstick on her teeth. By the end of this essay, Anne admits it is not her duty to regulate her mother's thermostat so she does not need the sweater.

Anne describes her mother as being like "cells in the process of division, which haven't yet settled back into place." She says her mother did not always seem as vulnerable as she does now, and that seems to be what bothers Anne most. She says mother wants to "tie her cord to me." However, Anne does...