New York City, March 31, 2014
"Growing up" by
Russell Baker
Russell Baker was
born in Virginia in the year 1925. Baker was five years old when his father
died. He is the author of his autobiography, "Growing up", which
describes his life with his mother Elizabeth and her family during the Great
Depression. His family returned extremely poor, and his mother had to give up
for adoption to her sister Audrey. Then, they moved to New Jersey and went to
live in the house of Russell uncles. Baker's life is a classic example of
self-made man. Born poor, he worked and studied his way up out of poverty,
under the guidance of his widowed mother and grandmother.
Having read
"Growing Up" by Russell Baker, brings to mind how Russell lived a
childhood of poverty and now carries a different lifestyle. So, I can compare
as many families of that time had to face serious economic problems when the
stock market collapse in the United States. Therefore, when I hear in the modern
world people complain about how hard their lives are, gave me that their
problems are insignificant compared to the difficulties faced in hard times
suffered by our parents and grandparents.
Baker grew up with his
mother and his paternal grandmother, Ida Rebecca, who fought for it, despite
the abysmal cultural clashes that developed between them. In the absence of
father Baker, joint coexistence between mother and grandmother, who assumed the
role of heads of households, especially when Elizabeth was widowed. Today,
grandparents are a complement of parents in the education of children.
Grandparents sometimes do not approve how their children educate their
grandchildren, and then a conflict appears just as happened between the mother
and grandmother Baker. However, very many years have passed since Baker was an
infant, and still keep coming conflict between parents and grandparents. It is
important to distinguish the role of each. The friction between parents and
grandparents appear at the time of decision making around grandchildren.
Grandparents sometimes forget that parents are the ones who have the primary
autonomy over their children when deciding on their children.
Clashes between her
mother and grandmother show the differences in the social values of the
generations. Baker's mother belongs to a new generation. She sees education as
an advance in society become extremely valuable. Her grandmother believed that
education was to be limited to learning the basics, reading, writing and
arithmetic, and men were made to work physically and not be complacent reading
books. Grandparents can advise and give their
opinion, but decisions are made by parents. The education of children can
become a source of conflict that has its negative effects on the relationship
between grandparents an parents. In this sense each space
are confused, and generational differences arise because the grandparents, as
Ida Rebecca, believe they can make decisions about the grandchildren as if they
were their children. Therefore, though Elizabeth could not find a job
during the Depression, she worked as a washerwoman and schoolteacher. Her main
mission was to give a good education to her child. Baker came to graduate from
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and went on to win two Pulitzer prizes,
one of them "Growing Up".
The relationship between these two strong women, Baker's
mother and grandmother were very influential in the conformation of his
childhood. Baker grew up with them who had opposing views on issues of how to
educate a child. Elizabeth constantly infused the importance of education in
the minds of Russell, while Ida Rebecca showed an old mentality. Although he
grew up in the midst of these conflicting thoughts, some negative, I am pleased
to know he had a good influence of his mother during his childhood. Elizabeth
was a woman of strong character enough to raise Russell with the conviction
that he could get very far if he worked hard and was good and honest people. So
even though Elizabeth had many difficult years, she kept her dream,
that her son would become a great man. I admire mothers as Elizabeth, who
despite that she was a widow and lived in poverty, she could raise her son.
