الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The eighteenth-century witnessed the development of an ideology of motherhood that confirmed the notion that women were born to be mothers and naturally inclined toward childcare and domesticity. Throughout the century, the mother’s role was constructed into a series of rules of maternal behavior, and responsibilities were promoted as the attributes of maternal excellence. Then, a series of fiction appeared in which mother figures were imperfect when measured against the exact standards of maternal excellence. Either the mother fails because she does not show the appropriate maternal passion that would encourage her to perform as an ideal mother, or she is absent and forced to leave the mothering of her child to others. These others – surrogate mothers – are also imperfect in some way because the biological mother figure can affect the destiny of her child. The approach that is used in this study is the psychological approach because it is appropriate to analyze personality in general. This thesis explores the theme of motherhood in two novels, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and White Oleander by Janet Fitch. It discusses the relationship between motherhood and feminism. It also concentrates on maternal loss and its impact on daughter’s self-esteem. Moreover, it presents the artistic structures that writers use to give deep meanings to the text.