Introduction
The Dominican Republic has an extremely high number of single mothers in its population. Statistics shows that the republic has about one and a half million single mothers. This is attributed to divorce, death of husbands, personal choices and other reasons. This population has a big effect on the social, economic and political status of the country. In addition, it has determined the manner in which children grow.
Also, it determines the future behaviors of children (Saillant and Hernández 1998). For example, a child brought up by a single mother tends to relate with women in a more comfortable manner than the ones brought up by the two parents. This is because they have interacted with their mothers in their livelihood.
This paper seeks to focus on the status of the single mothers and its effects on their children. In this light, we will consider the book of Junot Diaz called The Brief Life of Oscar Wao.
Effects of Single Motherhood on Children
Poor Sexual Life
One significant effect of single motherhood on children is poor sexuality. In this light, children brought up by single mother lead into a problematic life. In regard to the girls, they are involved in careless sexual intercourse. As a result, they get premature pregnancy and destroy their lives. For example, Belicia was brought up by La Inca whom she considered to be her mother. During her school life, she had a relationship with Pujols.
They engaged in sexual intercourse and Belicia was discontinued from school. Afterwards, she got a job in a restaurant. During this period, she ran into a gangster. They entered into a relationship with this gangster making her be evicted from the job. The gangster orders the restaurant to admit her back but she resigns later. In this light, we find that Belicia had sexual difficulty in life owing to single motherhood.
This is because she did not have a chance of observing her parent’s relationship. On the other hand, boys have difficulty forming sexual relationships in life. For example, we find that Oscar had a lot of difficulty dating girls. In addition, he encountered difficulties maintaining a relationship once he formed one. In this light, we find him entering into two relationships simultaneously. In this case, he was dating Olga and Maritza.
However, he dumped Olga and settles with Maritza. Surprisingly, Maritza broke up with him. Afterwards, he meets with Ana and falls in love with her after a short time. When he proposed to her, the girl declined the offer. In his college life, Oscar gets into a relationship with an elderly prostitute.
This shows despair and a lack of self-respect. Therefore, these two examples show that children brought up by single mothers will have difficulties in life. Regarding the girls, they have difficulties because they did not have the fatherly love during their childhood. In this light, they try to find satisfaction from men.
As a result, they become desperados of love. On the other hand, boys lose their manhood significantly. This makes it difficult to handle women in life.
Indiscipline
Many children brought up by their mothers indulge in criminal activities. These activities include taking alcohol, sexual immorality and others. In this light, a father has a sense of command to the children. This command makes the children deviate from acts of indiscipline. In this case, Belicia is a good example. She indulges in sexual immorality.
As a result, she is evicted from school and finds a job in a restaurant. In the restaurant, she is impregnated by a gangster. Also, Lola is another example that portrays indiscipline. In this case, they have continuous conflict with her mother. As a result, she runs away from home. When her mother comes to the coffee hotel where Lola was meeting her brother, she tries to escape form the hotel.
However, she runs into her mother and pushes her down on the floor mistakenly. This shows a high level of indiscipline and defiance towards her mother. In fact, it shows that she hates her mother with passion. As a result, she disregards the company of her mother completely.
Academics
When children are brought up by single mothers, they perform better in some subjects than others. Mostly, these children perform excellently in literature, history, life skills, and other related subjects. In this light, it is argued that mothers bring up their children in a more social way than their fathers (Gordon 1994). On the other hand, fathers are cold, factual and straight to the point.
For example, it is very clear that Oscar was brought up by a mother. As a result, he enjoyed writing fiction. In fact, he could write twenty pages in a day. Then, he could put the writing on the door and sign them with fantasy language. However, some cases are different from Oscar’s situation. Some children are poor performers especially when they are brought up with single mothers.
In fact, statistics shows that the students whose parents are single mothers drop out from school at a very high rate. There are various reasons contributing to this high rate of dropouts. First, the students exhibit indiscipline and lack diligence. They neglect the school program arriving at school late. Others indulge in sexual intercourse and other criminal behaviors. For example, Belicia was found in a closet together with a Jack.
In this case, Jack and Belicia had sexual intercourse. The school administration expelled her from school. Afterwards, she did not attend another school. This led to the end of his academic goals and ambitions. Secondly, some students are stressed by the environment of single parentage. This mostly happens when the parents have divorced. The divorce induces a lot of stress and pain on the child.
As a result, learning becomes difficult and problematic. Therefore, the student performs poorly in their studies. In addition, some single mothers have difficulties in raising the school fee for the child. In fact, some Dominican single mothers live on two dollars a day (Mulroy 1995). This forces the children to miss lessons. As a result, children lack consistency in their studies resulting in poor performance.
In some instances, they are unable to socialize with other students. Consequently, they are mocked and segregated by the others. This segregation leads to stress and depletion which may lead to poor performance. Generally, single mothered children might be poor performance.
Conclusion
Single motherhood is an essential issue that affects the Dominican Republic in various ways. Importantly, this paper has portrayed the effect of single motherhood on children. It has focused on three essential factors of human life. These are sexuality, education and morality. Therefore, it is an all-inclusive paper.
Works Cited
Gordon, Linda. Pitied but not entitled: single mothers and the history of welfare, 1890-1935. New York: Free Press, 1994. Print.
Mulroy, Elizabeth A. The new uprooted: single mothers in urban life. Westport, Conn.: Auburn House, 1995. Print.
Saillant, Silvio, and Ramona HernaÌndez. The Dominican Americans. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998. Print.