Cruelty, Self-Esteem, and Adolescence Theme Analysis

Though Mum attempts to control almost every aspect of her husband and daughters’ lives, she’s particularly interested in controlling her daughters’ bodies. At 12 years old, Anna is on the brink of puberty; Kennedy never reveals Louise’s age, but she seems close in age to Anna. Despite the fact that her daughters are approaching their teen years, Mum does everything in her power to keep them looking and feeling as young and powerless as possible. Kennedy underscores Mum’s cruelty in attempting to control her daughters’ bodies—and through this, she shows how Mum denies Anna and Louise the self-esteem or confidence that would make growing up easier.

The fact that Anna and Louise are growing up seems to terrify Mum. When Anna recalls asking Mum for a training bra for Christmas, she initially only fixates on the fact that Mum refused on the grounds that 12-year-old Anna is “nowhere near old enough for that.” Anna’s first description of this event shows clearly that Mum doesn’t want to accept that her daughter is growing up. After all, Anna describes the “tingling, embarrassing swell of [her] chest,” suggesting that she’s physically and emotionally ready for a bra no matter her age. But when Anna revisits this memory later, she realizes that Mum is actually fearful of Anna growing up. It dawns on her that “what [she’d] seen in [Mum’s] face when [she’d] asked for the training bra was a tremor of terror, not scorn.” In other words, it’s terrifying for Mum to confront that her daughters are growing up and entering puberty. And any proof of her daughters’ maturity, like Anna’s developing breasts, causes Mum’s fear to bubble up—so she attempts to mask that fear with scorn.

It’s telling, though, that Anna initially interpreted Mum’s reaction as a scornful one. This suggests that Mum deals with her fear by being cruel to her daughters. The story is peppered with accounts of Mum’s meanness, as when Mum regularly asks her daughters to laugh or agree with her when she speaks poorly of Dad. Anna also notes that throughout the summer, once Dad sets up the pool, she spends her days fearful that Mum is going to take issue with the pool—a clear indicator that Anna feels as though Mum constantly victimizes her. Mum’s cruelty intensifies when she speaks cruelly about Anna’s body. When Anna asked for a training bra, Mum didn’t just refuse—she told Anna that “it’s normal for young girls to feel self-conscious about their weight.” With this, Mum essentially told Anna that she is overweight and should feel self-conscious about that. But it’s telling that it’s only at the end of the story, when Anna and Louise refuse to smile for the Christmas photo, that Anna realizes why Mum is so cruel. That Anna makes this leap in understanding shows that despite Mum’s cruelty and fear of her daughters’ maturity, Anna is well on her way to growing up. She’s developing a more critical and thoughtful way of seeing her parents and is no longer a child who accepts Mum’s behavior at face value.

Mum deals with her fears about her daughters’ maturity by making them feel as childish as possible. This shows up most clearly in Mum’s refusal to get Anna a bra for Christmas—and then in her insistence that her daughters wear childish sundresses for the Christmas photo. Refusing to buy Anna a bra denies her a garment that would mark her as an adult, while forcing both Anna and Louise into dresses designed for children undermines the girls’ budding maturity. And to make things worse, the dress fits Anna poorly and is unflattering, which continues to destroy her self-esteem. It also forces Anna to think about her size—and makes Anna an easy target for Louise’s bullying when she says disparagingly that Anna has to wear a dress like a tent because she’s fat. In this way, the story shows how Mum makes her daughters accomplices in this project of keeping them young and powerless. Mum doesn’t have to say anything about the dress to hurt Anna’s feelings when Louise has already done so.

“Whirlpool” ultimately suggests that Mum won’t be successful in keeping her daughters children forever. The simple fact that Anna is entering puberty makes it impossible to ignore that she’s growing up and will one day have the opportunity to escape Mum, simply by virtue of becoming an adult. But even more than this, Kennedy suggests that despite their youth, the girls are already well on their way to escaping Mum’s control. Indeed, it’s significant that the girls refuse to smile genuine smiles for the Christmas photo—in this instance, they refuse to play along with Mum’s games and instead assert their agency over their bodies. Decisions like this one suggest that the girls will take control of their bodies as they grow up and gradually subvert Mum’s attempts at control.