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The biblical narrative of Jephthah and his daughter (Judges 11:31-40) recounts the story of the judge, Jephthah, who vowed to sacrifice to God whatever came to greet him upon his return from a victorious battle with Ammon, and whose daughter became the victim of this vow. The goal of this thesis is to examine a sample of the Jewish responses to this biblical narrative from ancient and medieval times through the twentieth century. The analysis demonstrates the difficult nature of this text, its linguistic and conceptual ambiguities, the solutions to a well-defined series of problems proposed by more than two dozen interpreters, and their failure to deal with most of the historical and ethical problems that emerge from the story.

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This study was concerned with the effect of parental attitudes and the illegitimacy rate among teenagers. A survey of the literature discussed many different factors affecting illegitimacy. Theorists have suggested poverty, lack of intelligence, mental abnormalities, and parental attitudes as a few of the causative factors. Also reviewed were areas such as the number of unwed mothers, their intelligence, the effect of the Negro subculture on the illegitimacy rate, the AFDC population and the illegitimate birth rate, and the background of pregnant out of wedlock mothers. The mother-daughter relationship was shown to be of importance in the likelihood of a teenage girl becoming pregnant out of wedlock. It was further suggested that dominance, ignorance, and possessiveness were important in the mother-daughter relationship. Four hypotheses proposed that there would be a significant difference between a group of mothers of teenagers with children born out of wedlock and a group of mothers whose daughters had never been pregnant. The first suggested that mothers of unwed. mothers would rate significantly higher on the possessiveness scale than mothers whose daughters have never been pregnant. The second proposed that mothers of daughters with out of wedlock children would rate significantly higher on the ignoring scale than mothers of never pregnant daughters. The third hypothesis suggested that mothers of unwed mothers would rate significantly higher on the dominance scale than the mother of the girl who has not had a child out of wedlock. The fourth hypothesis proposed that on all three scales the mothers of unwed mothers would rate significantly higher than the mothers of daughters who are not unwed mothers.

Auto Biography is a creative nonfiction memoir: A daughter, forced to move her unlovable, ever-combustible, wheelchairbound mother cross-country in an RV, attempts to come to terms with her via the automobiles of their lives. The story explores: 1) the universal dilemma of caring for aged parents––its stress, its pain, its sacrifice, and its dark humor; 2) memory––the "peeling back" narrative style working in the same layer upon layer way of memory, its non-linearity creating not so much a one-piece narrative but essay snapshots forming a family photo album view of this thing we call memory and this thing we call meaning; and, of course, 3) cars––their subtle yet surprisingly essential role in all our modern and post-modern lives.

Although the position of mothers has changed considerably since the beginning of the twentieth century, an idealised notion of motherhood persists. The cinema provides a source of information about attitudes towards mothering in Australian society which is not diminished by the fact that mothers are often marginal to the narrative. While the study recognises that cinematic images are not unconditionally authoritative, it rests on the belief that films have some capacity to reflect and influence society. The films are placed in an historical context with regard to social change in Australian society, so that the images can be understood within the context of the time of the making and viewing of the films. The depictions of the mother are scrutinised with regard to her appearance, her attitude, her relationship with others and the expectations, whether explicit or implicit, of her role. Of particular significance is what happens to her during the film and whether she is punished or rewarded for her behaviour. The conclusions reached after analysis are used to challenge those ideas which assume that portrayals of motherhood are unchangeable and timeless. The study examines Australian feature films from 1900 to 1988. To augment its historical focus, it uses sociological, psychoanalytical and feminist theoretical writing with special relevance for motherhood and mothering practice. Looking at areas of importance to mothers, it comprises an exploration of what makes a mother good or bad; the significance of the birth of female and male children; the relationship of mothers to daughters; the mother's sexuality and the metaphor of the missing mother. It shows that images of motherhood on screen are organised according to political, social and economic requirements in the community. Further, films frequently show mothers in traditional roles which are useful for maintaining notions of patriarchal privilege in society. The analysis exposes stereotypical depictions of motherhood which are often inaccurate, unfair and oppressive to women.

Surrogate motherhood abounds in nineteenth-century fiction. Governesses, nurses, aunts, and close family friends often form strong attachments with young girls, guiding them through life and their comings-of-age. Many surrogate mothers train their “daughters” according to the rules of societal expectations that mothers and daughters have cordial, respectful relationships, where the mother is unselfish, loving, and sympathetic toward her respectful, obedient, honest daughter. Many other nineteenth-century novels, however, depict surrogate mothers who are cruel, selfish, and unloving toward their “daughters.” While the role of the surrogate mother exists in various forms, it is regardless a strong presence in nineteenth-century fiction that leads daughters to choose to become surrogate mothers themselves.

As the number of foreign spouses is increasing in Taiwan, Taiwan government and scholars have paid more attention to the issue of life adaptation of foreign spouses in Taiwan. The relationship between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws is littled concerned by scholars. This research works on the interactions between Vietnamese spouses and their mother-in-laws. Most foreign Vietnamese spouses live with husband¡¦s fathers and mothers in Taiwan after their marriages. Interactions between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws are an important part of interdynamic family relationship, which generate influence on the harmony of their families. Thus, this research aimed at Vietnamese wivies, and on the basis of the development of interpersonal relationship, to further probe into the setting up and development of the relationship between Vietnamese spouses and Taiwanese mother-in-laws, and how Vietnam wivies face the conflict with their mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. As for the research method, indepth interview is taken. Interviewer carries on deep interview with aimed persons under a guide of interview outlines of semi-structured interviews. Study samples were mainly Vietnamese spouses who have got married over two years, and at present live with their Taiwanese mother-in-laws in the Kaohsiung area. Through the way of purposive sampling and snowball sampling, eighteen Vietnamese wives are selected as the interviewing targets, and paid a visit to deeply investigate the subjective opinions of their mother-in-laws, the relationship-build process with mother-in-laws, how to keep the harmony between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, and how to face the conflicts between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. The research shows that the relationship between Vietnamese spouses and Taiwanese mother-in-laws roughly keep the harmonious state. And there are four significant themes during the relation-developing process between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, they are (1) ¡¥mother-in-laws take the initiative¡¦ is the first step to establish the relations with their daughter-in-laws. During the initial stage of this relationship, the attitude of mother-in-laws toward daughter-in-laws plays the main factor to influence the relationship in the future. (2) ¡¥The role playing¡¦ is the basis of maintaining the relationship between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. In daily life, the role playing is the main way to keep relationship harmonious between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. (3) The attitudes of mother-in-laws and husband¡¦s family could influence the relationship between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, and lead to more familiar or stagnate. Due to Vietnamese spouses take the most frequently interactions with husband¡¦s family after coming to Taiwan, the attitudes of mother-in-laws and husband¡¦s family would influence the development of the relationship between moth-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. (4) As foreign spouses have married to Taiwan for a longer period of time, they would take more active ways than those newly married to Taiwanese husbands when encountering conflicts with mother-in-laws.