What are the motifs in Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan?

Recognizing personal choices is a reoccurring idea in the story. Despite their vulnerability to men, each of the four main characters is an incredibly strong woman driven to succeed and totally responsible for choices made or assumed. Savannah provides financially for her mother and loves her dearly, and yet she will not be coerced by her family to marry simply because she is in her mid-thirties. Savannah makes flawed decisions by becoming sexually intimate too soon in her relationships, but by the end of the novel, she finds her power and stops the cycle of intimacy followed by male betrayal. Bernadine has a difficult time grasping that the life she thought she was bu