The Emotional Element of Samuel Freedman
Samuel Freedman captivated his audience with his luminous personality and composure. Freedman presented himself as an extroverted individual, very placid and docile. He did not intimidate his audience, but through his poise illustrated his intellect as well as his skill. As he spoke about his book one could see the confidence and mastery of language in his words. Moreover, even as a dominant figure in the literary world, he was overwhelmed with emotion by the memories of his mother and her genuine significance to his life.
Yet, Freedman did not always feel an emotional attachment to his mother, having detached himself from her throughout her illness and by leaving to college. He spurned his mother and did not even visit her grave. All of these emotions led to his ultimate mental detachment from his mother; he would end up not knowing who his mother truly was. Therefore, Freedman’s penance was his decision to create a book about his mother, devoting two years to researching about her life in order to learn who she was.
After completing his literary work, Freedman was able to understand the sources of his mother’s melancholy: being the breadwinner of the family, the low roles of women in society, and the self-destructive choices of her personal life. He learned to respect his mother and felt delinquent for distancing himself from her, when she had already suffered enough throughout her life. Ultimately, Freedman felt that his literary work fulfilled part of its purpose in allowing him to once again consider himself her son.
All of these emotions leaked out during the interview. His tone became softer, his facial expression became humble and his composure became ordinary. Clearly, one can observe all of his physical alterations, and thus one could sense the relationship and affiliation he constructed with his mother. That moment was the most powerful moment of the entire interview. Freedman’s dominance and poise escaped him for those few minutes, as he talked about his mother and the guilt he felt for detaching himself from her. An eerie sensation amassed within me and I felt like calling my mother, who is in the Dominican Republic, that very moment and telling her how much I love her. I did call her that night to hear her voice. Fortunately I have an impeccable relationship with my mother, and we talked for a while like we used to do when I lived with her.
The emotional aspect of producing the book caused Freedman to divide his mind in half: emotion and craft. Yet, he found that the more craft he put into the book, the more emotion surfaced as well. They coexisted and allowed him to create a compelling literary work and a relationship with his mother. In all, Freedman’s book “Who She Was” effectively depicts the life of his mother and allows the reader to visualize the city and the circumstances that his mother lived through. More importantly, however, the book provided Freedman with a relationship with his mother and a sense of penance; he now has an emotional connection to his mother and can call himself her son again.