Blog Post 7: Hope Jahren's Dedication to Her Mother

Naturally, there exists an irreplaceable, indescribable bond between mother and child within a loving environment.  Hope Jahren, however, steps beyond establishing her mother as an important factor in her life.  In addition to the reverence she holds for her mother, which she reveals through the dedication of space in her intellectual memoir for a synopsis of her mother’s story, Jahren accepts the responsibility to honor her mother by living the life her mother should’ve lived.  In addition to her work, unrelated to the specific publishing of this book, Jahren makes it a point to dedicate the book to her mother because of the respect, admiration, and love she has for her.

Throughout her expression of her personal experiences, Jahren paints a picture of her mother as she reveals the memories they’ve made together.  Although Jahren expresses her veneration for her mother through her belief that she “was meant to be an extension of [her] indestructible mother,” Jahren also reveres her mother through the repetition of the lessons she’s learned.  Rather than directly stating her love for her mother and moving on with her own experiences with plants and the lab, Jahren integrates her mother in such a way that emphasizes her importance in Jahren’s life.  Although her efforts could be interpreted as a grand gesture of appreciation, I believe that Jahren’s inclusion of her mother in the story reflects the singular kind of admiration one holds for one’s role model.  The inclusion of her mother within the context of her experiences with science, as the title Lab Girl suggests, not only reveals her mother as her strength in her femininity, but also commends her mother as her inspiration in a way that is more meaningful than a brief mention for the sake of completing a story.  Because Jahren, a science enthusiast much like her father, expresses a deep veneration for her mother, who pursued an education under the primary focus of English later in her years, within the context of a scientific intellectual memoir, she clearly depicts the love she holds for her mother.