This story gave me a real feel of a Southern narrative filled with emotion and powerful moments that make the story almost seem real. Beginning with the title, the word bellies is somewhat of a silly term, but one that gives off a childhood like meaning. The essence of the story seems to be the narrator going back home where she grew up to see her mother, and her memory is fading and it it getting progressively worse. This is also the main point of tension in the story, and I thought more could have been done to emphasize Mom’s fading memory, such as another scene from their childhood reminding the reader that she was once this amazing women, but now is maybe only half of who she used to be. That kind of scene really brings emotion out, especially since I can relate.
The repeating dialogue I thought did a good job emphasizing Mom’s bad memory, but it felt a little repetitive after the second instance. An easy fix their is just put the conversations in different context and mix the word choice up to make it feel like different moments instead of one moment several times.
I was a little confused on what exactly the story was trying to convey, and if the point is to emphasize the fading memory, it needs to be talked about more.
My favorite moments in this story were the laid back language used to describe the different moments with the family and how most of the situations seemed to remind me of country living at its finest. I think you could actually use more of these family type moments, as it not only shows that the mother was an important figure to everyone in the family, but it conveys great sense of realness that makes the story interesting.
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