Trauma
The cause of familial trauma in this poem is never stated outright, but it is clear that some kind of traumatic event underpins the actions of both the grandmother and grandchild, reverberating through their actions. It emerges in involuntary and unconscious ways, determined by the age and position of the two characters. The grandmother cries and seeks distractions. The grandchild, apparently less aware of this traumatic background, nevertheless expresses their emotional state through drawings, which seem to reference—perhaps unintentionally—the ever-present traumatic event. Even in the safe, calm space of the grandmother's kitchen, the traumatic event does not disappear: it is simply restrained or made less visible.
Care
Though the grandmother is herself suffering, she tamps down her own reactions in order to protect and care for the child. She focuses on creating safety and routine. She reads the almanac, itself a book that contains information such as the calendar—safe, unchanging, and predictable. She ensures not only that the child is fed, but that tasks and schedules are preserved. In other words, she cares for the child by preserving a sense of normalcy in spite of a recent, severe disturbance. In doing so, she assumes a duty of care, sacrificing her own needs to ensure the child's are met. At the same time, Bishop suggests that she needs these distractions and routines as much as the child does.
Repression
While the grandmother's adherence to routines and normalcy is in a sense a selfless expression of care for the grandchild, it is, in another sense, a repressive avoidance of uncomfortable emotion. Both grandmother and grandchild are evidently upset, but neither openly discusses this. The grandmother, meanwhile, continues to enforce mealtimes and other signs of normalcy, even as the grandchild prefers to draw—itself, it seems, a way of processing emotions. The grandmother's stoic insistence on putting aside her feelings to preserve the grandchild's normal routine, therefore, appears simultaneously noble and counterproductive, born out of both desire to keep the grandchild from harm and fear of open conversation.
