Response to “Dearth” in “Willful Creatures”

       The short story “Dearth” is one of the collections in Aimee Bender’s book “Willful Creatures.” It is telling the story about a woman with seven willful potatoes. Every time woman throw out these potatoes, potatoes will come back on next morning. Gradually, the potatoes become almost torso, which have hands, feet, neck, fingertips, toes, and so on. Meanwhile, the woman’s relationship with her lover is not good. Her neighbor always have new suitor. When she is hungry, she cuts these potatoes and bakes them. Unfortunately, after she finishes one entire enormous potato, there are only six potatoes left. She feels sad so she buries these six potatoes. She lies to her neighbor that her bathroom is broken for hiding her “children.” Afterwards, she digs up these potato babies accompanying with her neighbor. She seems to be a psychopath. However, a farmer accepts that these potatoes are woman’s children.  

       The plots are illogical, so I guess that this story is a sorrow story implying the negative effects of abortion on females. Sunflower symbolizes the nice things, such as love and hope. There are three clues that can prove that:

       Formost, sunflower just turns out for the woman’s neighbor who always has new suitor. The woman is jealous of her neighbor’s love relationship because the woman’s relationship with her lover is bad or even dead. Her neighbor owns happy life，but the woman does not. Every time when she sees her neighbor has a new suitor, she will be hungry. It is not a kind of dearth for food, but for love.

       Second, the woman tries to drop her potato babies on sunflower woman’s front stoop. It is implying that the woman think the sunflower woman will be a good mother to take care of her potato babies. She thinks the sunflower woman has the mother’s ability to love potato babies.

       Third, no matter how dark the sky is, sunflower is always brilliant. The author describes at least twice that the sky is dark. It shows the woman desires the nice thing in the rugged environment. This sunflower is the hope for future and the love for her potato babies. There is a sentence appears when she realizes that her babies become torso. “Sunflower on the hill waved at her in fields of yellow fingers.” Perhaps her babies bring new hope to her after her lover left.