Grisaia and Motherhood (Today's Actual Post)

Note; Spoilers of Le Fruit de Grisaia be here

Today I wanted to discuss a topic not brought up often when we discuss art, which leads to assumptions that are potentially disempowering. I wanted to first share the quotation shown below.

According to Laura Haas in From Mouse to Mermaid, “In Maternal Thinking, Sara Ruddick suggests that because of their parental roles, women who are also mothers think and act from a particular (but not unified) maternal standpoint. Considering motherhood from a cultural perspective adds the complexity that a “mother” does not construct her identity in a vacuum, nor is she alone responsible for its construction. Cultural myths and everyday situations and associations become part of what it means to be a mother” (Haas, 193).

Motherhood is culturally constructed to be a particular way; and yes, this does depend on the particular culture. At the same time, the mother is frequently erased in many works of art. Anime, for example, often removes the role of the mother (and father too in many cases). There are a lot of absent mothers either due to being dead or simply not being there. Anime is not the only medium susceptible to this trend – the Disney movies have been shown to erase the mother’s role and often make fathers ineffective and worthless. (Think Belle’s father in Beauty and the Beast or the Sultan in Aladdin). In our society – well, the American one I have grown up in – motherhood itself is de-emphasized, especially in art which has such a dearth of mothers. The mother not being present can be taken for granted, resulting in the distortion of representations of family.

Haas also says “I would like to suggest that the media’s repeated erasure of the mother’s place and her origins is a kind of ideological dominance accomplished in the unconscious (as well as the conscious) level, and that this symbolic murder is just as violent and even more frequently portrayed” (Haas, 195). 

This act of excluding mothers is in fact symbolic murder, as Haas says, not simply a mere erasure. If I was pressed for a strong instance of motherhood, I…could actually do it, but not without serious reflection on my part. Mothers simply aren’t emphasized, especially not in that role. One example, though admittedly a bit unconventional, is Akari (depicted to the left) who acts as Miuna’s mom in the show Nagi no Asukara. At first, Miuna[1] (right) refused to accept Akari, who dates her father in the show. To the point that Miuna and her friend told Akari to get lost. Akari’s strength as a surrogate mother comes from her persistent efforts to gain acceptance from Miuna, despite these difficulties; ultimately Akari succeeds. Akiko, mother of Nayuki in the show Kanon, also places great emphasis on supporting her daughter regardless of the hardships faced. When Akiko is badly injured, Nayuki sinks into a deep depression, reflecting the strength of their mother-daughter bond. Motherhood can then be both quite powerful and is very worthy of analysis – it extends beyond being a vehicle for characterization.

In Frontwing’s visual novel Le Fruit De Grisaia[2], the character Sachi (shown to the left) is forced to solve a difficult dilemma involving her mother. Growing up, Sachi had a very positive relationship with her parents. As time went on, her parents grew busier and busier until the family became cold and distant. On Sachi’s 6^th birthday, her parents try to make amends by throwing Sachi a small birthday party; to their surprise, she runs away out of resentment. They manage to find Sachi but they are struck by a car while crossing the street. Both are injured, with her father dying and her mother falling into a deep coma which still persists. I will simplify the biomedical ethics involved by saying that, though her mother is not responding, her life should still be valued. As a result, Sachi became someone who followed orders explicitly, despite common sense, in order to become what she calls a “good girl.” Her experiences with her fellow classmate Kazami Yuuji has led her to recently question her responsibilities. Now Sachi wishes to make amends through whatever means she can – you know, that archetypal hero’s quest.  As a result of her life experiences, Sachi struggles with thinking for herself, which makes her dilemma tougher.

(Because visual novels are built around answering choices, the player is given choices and must pick one to progress.) Sachi is given what I consider to be the most powerful choice in the visual novel: she must choose between killing her mother or killing herself. Few people would be able to easily pick a choice and defend their option (excluding answers such as “I don’t care” or “what the hell, I’ll pick that one”). Personally I was surprised and dismayed but I knew that I needed to think about what to answer. 

Both choices would provide closure in one form but both are ultimately self-defeating. Killing the cause of a cycle does not necessarily end a cycle, as one can learn from analysis of institutional oppression and simply having experience in the real world. (In this case the cycle would simply be feeling self-confidence and self-comfort then feeling unsure and breaking that feeling before returning to it again.) If deeply entrenched enough, then removing the cause will be ineffective. Suicide severs one’s ties to the world and other people; at the same time, no more recourse can be taken. This act could only act as resolution if one is genuinely devoted enough to one’s ideals and faith that they have done everything they can; otherwise, suicide cannot possibly answer Sachi’s dilemma or offer any kind of atonement. 

In this case, suicide provides no real resolution, even if she is adamant about performing the action as means of atonement. Sachi believes that the death of her parents is her fault, which in her mind justifies suicide as absolving herself. This decision ultimately, in her mind, rests with “what would a good girl do?” But killing oneself cannot fall under being a “good girl,” though Sachi has no obligation to simply follow society’s gender rules either. Rather, she would emotionally harm those who genuinely care about her while gaining no real resolution.

At the same time, Sachi can potentially end her mother’s life, which would again remove a source of her troubles but not eliminate them. Though Sachi’s mother is in a coma and thus “not alive”, her status as mother is significant. In mainstream culture, the mother is metaphorically murdered through erasure but here Sachi has the option to literally commit murder. This action would therefore act to usurp this importance of motherhood while overturning an important part of her life. Despite media matricide, Sachi’s mom played an important role in Sachi’s life by offering encouragement in her early years. Her mom was blocked by playing a more extensive role by becoming busy with work and by entering a coma. Motherhood is not simply giving birth – in fact this critieria should probably not even be there. Akari, for example, is not Miuna’s biological mother though she fulfills the role. Likewise, someone who does not identify as a woman can also act as a mother. The bond shared between child and mother matters much more. Sachi’s relationship with her mom, though weakened by the present situation, remains important, as evidenced by the fact that her life revolves around her guilt. In particular, she was Sachi’s mother during the critical years of her development. 

(Visual novels often have a “good” or “bad” ending depending on the choice picked.) Sachi learns, near the end of her route, about the efforts her parents made for her on the day they were fatally wounded. Pictures of Sachi were mounted on the wall in frames accompanied with positive notes  clearly loaded with love and affection; her parents used the opportunity to tell Sachi that they were proud of her, though she was not able to witness this scene until many years had passed. Thus her parents were able to show their devotion to their daughter despite so few years of service. Clearly Sachi should not kill her mother due to the positive experiences felt and because the action would be self-defeating.

Sachi is then driven to question the validity of either option, instead opting to learn how her parents truly felt. By visiting that which they had left behind, Sachi was able to gain atonement by learning how important she was to her parents; she also realized that the accident was not her fault, though she blamed herself.  Thus Sachi feels absolved of her guilt and healed of her trauma. Because of the complex ethics involved, I really enjoyed this choice. At the same time, Sachi’s opting to not kill her mother acts to dismantle the ubiquitous media matricide and highlights the strength of motherhood as a concept.

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[1] Miuna means beautiful sea.

[2] Literally translated as The Fruit of Grisaia

Works Cited

Le Fruit de Grisaia. Frontwing. 2011. 

Haas, Lynda. "Eighty-Six the Mother: Murder, Matricide, and Good Mothers."

From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Ed.  Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995. 193-209. Print. 

 
Safebooru.com. Web. Accessed 18 Jan 2015.