Silver Pin: Analysis

The article on the silver pin was more than just describing an object. The object projected a life long story. The silver pin projected a personal history that created a persona around the object. The mother in the article survived and endured the third reich and hid from the Nazis. Her mother and father both sacrificed and put themselves in danger to provide a new life in America for the author an her siblings. The object embodies the soul of the author’s mother even if, while living, the author did not appreciate her mother the way she should have. The silver pin figuratively takes on the form of her mother. The way she cares for the pin is the way she felt that her mother should have been cared for if not for her own selfish pride. Though I do believe that once the author became a mother herself, she saw that specific sacrifice that only a mother can bring to a child; and after her own children were born only then could she really appreciate and reconcile with her mother. That pin symbolizes not just the mother’s life journey, but also their own reconciled relationship as mother and daughter.