No, it was not the mother’s responsibility to intervene in her daughter’s life as she did. I do believe that often in a Childs life often the parents have the right and responsibility to intervene. Parents often simply want to protect their children from the unknown and often their intentions are to keep their kids safe and happy specifically their daughters because they believe they are more fragile than their sons. It is generally accepted that parents do not own their children; rather they have guardian ship and are given temporary rights to direct their children onto the correct path of living and make decisions which will impact their life positively. In Gabrielle Roy’s Wilhelm, the protagonists mother was not right to intervene in her daughter’s life as she did because she was being unjust and prejudiced, did not allowed her daughter to make decisions on her own and she limited her daughters freedom.
First off, the reasoning as to why the narrator’s mother is so against her daughter being courted because she is prejudice and intolerant towards immigrants. There was no real reason for the mother to fear her daughter’s safety around Wilhelm, as we later learn she knows that Wilhelm is a nice, bright young man. It was obvious that the mother disapproved of Wilhelm because once she learned of his involvement in the O’Neill’s house, as her daughter stated "My mother at once forbade me to return to the O’Neill’s, so long, said she, as I had not got over the idea of Wilhelm." Also, through the discriminatory terms she used to refer to Wilhelm such as “the beanstalk”, “the Netherlander” and “the Hollander”. The mother never gave a direct reason to her daughter as to why she should not be near Wilhelm. The need to protect the protagonist was misplaced as she was never in danger. The setting of the story is in Canada, presumably the early 1900’s. Although, today Canada is a multicultural country and accepts all cultures and people of different nationalities before it was quite different as many British descendents hated immigrants from smaller European nations such as Germany and Poland. A specific case of this was when in the early 1900’s the Canadian government imposed a law to detain all immigrants and citizens from foreign countries such as Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Secondly, the protagonist appeared to be old enough to make decisions herself or at least have some involvement in the decisions that can affect her future. Often when parents restrict their children and have a lot of rules enforced in their household, their children rebel and will do anything to try and be independent. This is evident in this piece of literature when the protagonist found loop holes to meet Wilhelm without her knowledge. Also, a child may need an adult to make choices for them because they are not fully mentally developed yet but this is not the case for teenagers. Teenagers in general have the brain capacity to realize the consequences of their choices and actions. Besides if teenagers don’t get choices or don’t make decisions for them they will become dependent on their guardian for a very long time, which will result in long term complications. Another complication of not allowing teens from making decisions is your holding them back from learning new things and understanding new cultures. It could be possible that through Wilhelm the protagonist may have learned new facts or history.
Lastly, the parents imposed limitations on their daughter and took unreasonable protective measures. When the protagonist stopped visiting Wilhelm at the O’Neill’s residence, they began seeing each other in public after her school, when she was told that she should stop doing that, she walked on the opposite side of the street as Wilhelm. Her parents furious said she must stop seeing Wilhelm, this did not stop her from writing to him, and when they found out about the letters they banned writing but she found a way to communicate through telephones. She was clever, as were her parents but their reasoning was unjust. They had nothing to protect her from; she was in no grave danger.
In conclusion, in Gabrielle Roy’s short story Wilhelm, it was not the mother’s responsibility to intervene in her daughters affairs because she was in no danger and her reaction was unreasonable as she imposed limitations on her daughter, made decisions for her daughter and lastly was biased and unjust in forcing her opinion. There really was no need for her involvement as later on in the story we learn the protagonist loses interest in Wilhelm and stops her relationship with him. “I hung up before the end of the performance. Thereafter, Wilhelm scarcely crossed my path again." With or without her mother’s intervention the protagonist would have realized she never really liked Wilhelm. So although a parent has guardianship and responsibility of their children, unless their kids are doing illegal activities such as doing drugs or joining gangs then there is no reason to be overly active in their life so much as to run their life.
