The Loom

As the children of the family grow up and leave home, the household becomes torn apart, this is explored in R L Sasaki’s The Loom where the mother falls into depression since her children no longer need her. She becomes lost for a purpose in life and starts weaving as a “fortress” to cope with her emotions. The writer uses an extended metaphor of the loom to symbolize the lives of the family and the mother uses greys and browns these “shades of her life” to express her depression. Each tread symbolizes each individual family member and the mother’s job is to weave their lives back together again into a single piece and she does so with “painstaking attention”, “tirelessly, endlessly winding, threading, tying.” It becomes her duty as a mother now to weave her family back together and it seems to be working. Shown through the dialogue of her daughters, all Jo, Sharon and Linda ever talk about is their mother. The muffler woven by their mother even leads to Jo and Sharon “sharing a rare moment together before their lives diverged again.” This extended metaphor helps the reader understand the importance of family and how as one we are quite insignificant. However, as a family we can support and make each other stronger just like how when each strand is woven together the fabric becomes much stronger and significant.