Ostiant or Chalenduin

I doubt that I'm going to make much sense, since my own feelings on the matter are a little clouded, but here goes anyway.

That's perfectly fine, so are mine. I spent quite some time trying to formulate my thoughts into something I hoped others would understand. And it's strange that so many people have an opinion that's close to mine (or maybe the Maude bashers are not replying! :).

It seems that, while most people are upset about the way she treats Ezra, most of them don't feel like she's doing it out of malice, but a misguided sense of parental obligation. She does have a slightly twisted (when compared to what's considered normal) view of parenthood, the reasons of which I tried to explain above. Whether I was successful or not is a different matter.

There were some interesting theories fans have come up with over the years, and my own is very similar to what you said, about being forced to lead a harsh life. And when all you see around you is people doing whatever they can to get their hands on money, it's not going to make you a person who thinks that money should be avoided.

Hmm, it never occurred to me that Maude was a proud woman, but it makes perfect sense. I know people who would rather chop off their own hand rather than admit they're wrong. So in her experience, money = power and independence, and a way for her not to be dependent on anyone else, so of course she would teach her son to be the same way.

And while I said earlier that we are shaped by the way we are raised, we are not exactly an equal copy of our parents. I don't know whether she was a gambler's daughter, I'm just guessing. She could have been a preacher's daughter as well, or a working girl. I'm just saying that she was shaped by her circumstances, and, like you said

...Maude genuinely believes she's acting in Ezra's best interests, but her ideas of what's good for him differ wildly from his. A single woman at that time (Especially one with an apparently fatherless child) would have very few options. --- So of course she'd want to prepare her child for the sort of treatment the bastard son of a gambler is likely to receive, and give him a means to earn a living along the way.

Whether those means are right or wrong is completely irrelevant to her, since she seems to view everything in the light of survival.

Hope I made sense! :)