Mother - John Lennon

Mother is a deeply personal song, where John Lennon expresses the pain of parental loss. This piece illustrates the theme of abandonment, a significant reality of 20th-century family relationships.

By Victor Landwerlin

In 1970, John Lennon released Mother. A song about parental abandonment. At the time, biological families were central. Parental love seemed essential to emotional balance. Today, it seems outdated.

Lennon cries out to his mother and father. He blames them for not being there. This need for love, expressed so violently, seems strange today. Our family structures are more flexible. The modern individual is no longer trapped in a relationship imposed by blood. They choose their surroundings.

John Lennon

The parental model of that time was authoritarian. Emotional dependence was strong. Children suffered in silence from their parents' absence. Today, such a relationship seems toxic to us. We live in a society where emotional autonomy is encouraged. Parenting has freed itself from the rigid expectations of the past.

In Mother, Lennon repeats the words "Mama" and "Daddy". An almost desperate cry. For us, it reflects an old suffering. A pain that today's individuals would no longer carry. Our families are no longer emotional prisons. The traumas related to parental abandonment belong to another time.

Cover of the song Mother by John Lennon

This song is a testimony. A look at a time when the biological family was everything. Today, this need for reconciliation seems incomprehensible to us. The very idea of suffering because of an absent parent seems archaic. The world has changed. Family ties are no longer as burdensome.

Mother remains a remarkable work, but it reminds us how rigid family relationships were. Today, the individual can free themselves from the chains of family heritage. Emotional dependence on parents is no longer a norm.