Mother, a relational noun, implies the existence of children - daughters and sons - who are members of a metaphorically conceptualized state. Furthermore, metaphor implies certain relationships (e.g. biological and emotional), and hence the metaphor of a MOTHER is a powerful metaphor that plays an important role in imagining the state, in the sense that it gives a strong emotion role (related to belonging, care, unconditional love, etc.). Lakoff explained in his Moral Politics (1996) that it is natural for a nation to be metaphorically seen as a family, government as a parent or citizens as children: transferring family morality to political morality, and creating a link between family values and politics. Personification that allows one to imagine a country, state, and nation as an individual, refers to emotions, because people tend to develop much stronger emotions - whether positive or negative - toward individuals rather than toward objects.
Family Domain > Mother Frame
Examples linked to this frame: