by Amy Wilber

Created on: February 15, 2009   Last Updated: March 02, 2009

Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi and raised on a farm by her grandmother. She grew up in humble beginnings and later on she lived with her mother in Milwaukee. She suffered her own trials of survivals at a very young age and ran away from home when she was thirteen only to end up living with her father Vernon in Nashville. Her father was very strict and having no motherly influence she still had the emotional ties to empathy and compassion to share with others.

During most of her life she had been involved with the media and in the public's eye. It was not until she had captured her own talk show in 1986 that Oprah really started to shine.

The topics of her shows almost always revolve around survival, hope, enlightenment, and creating a better environment for the common person. The comfortable atmosphere is similar to having a conversation with a mother over coffee to discuss the events of the day. She is a beacon of hope to guests who appear on her show to tell their stories and listens with her heart as a mother would listen to her child. Her empathy is shown throughout various segments of the show. Her caring demeanor is displayed to everyone who is around her and she has the utmost natural desire to help others less fortunate than herself.

Having suffered from abuse and molestation at an early age, Oprah understands the pain and effort it takes to raise one's self up from daunting circumstances and have someone there to listen and lend an empathic ear. She relates with her guests and everyone she comes into contact with an understanding of troubles that face many people.

When she started the school for girls in South Africa it was to perhaps pursue an endeavor that enabled the girls to have an influence on the world in their own special and unique way. It could also have been a motherly instinct to provide for these girls in a way that would shape them to make their mark in society and provide them a way to grow up with the knowledge that every child deserves.

Oprah's understanding of the issues presented on her show gives the impression of a person that is present to listen to her guests and show the compassion of a mother to "soothe all pain" that perhaps some of them do not have the opportunity to experience.

Perhaps since she did not have the motherly influence when she was younger she decided to be the "mother" of all people. Oprah's desire to have children may have become replaced by the idea of her desire to help others and acquire

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