Summary

Section two of Ducks, Newburyport highlights the existential angst that constantly plagues the protagonist. Even as a child, the protagonist frequently contemplated death and used it as leverage during arguments. She now wonders why most people are indifferent towards mothers when the world feels so empty without them. This contradiction confounds the protagonist and leads her to question whether her children feel the same way about her as she does about her own mother. Ellmann suggests that the protagonist still maintains a blinding love for her mother when she reveals that Mommy cheated at Go-Go. Though the protagonist inadvertently confirms that Mommy used a suspicious shuffling method while playing cards, she absolves her mother of any malintent, convinced that she could never act unjustly. Her relentless internal monologue about such abstract concepts eventually causes the protagonist to become self-reflexive. Though the protagonist acknowledges that...