Explain how the reasons for working differ in "Find Work" and "My Mother Enters the Workforce".

The reasons for working differ in "Find Work" and "My Mother Enters the Workforce" because the mother works to distract herself from her grief in "Find Work" whereas the mother in "My Mother Enters the Workforce" works to provide a better life for herself and her daughter.

Explanation:

In "Find Work," it says that the poet's mother was "widowed very young," her "country heart anaesthetized and mute" and she would ""Find work," ... to reply to every grief." This states explicitly that she was widowed, suffered because of it and worked to cope or forget the pain. In the other story, it is very clear that the mother attends schooling and applies for work as a seamstress. However, at the end it says " ah, and then, no more postponed groceries, and that blue pair of shoes!" because the mother could not afford basic needs much less luxuries for herself until she started her seamstress work.