Motherhood

This theme represents the primary source of internal conflict for the narrator, who has recently suffered a miscarriage. The narrator reveals her miscarriage suddenly in Chapter 11, but the profound effect this tragedy had on her is established more gradually throughout the novel, particularly in scenes in which the narrator observes mothers with their children. When she is worried that Johnson has a fever and Helen arrives and assures her that he is fine, she recognizes Helen's reaction as a representation of the special bond between Helen and her son and feels sad that she will never have this kind of connection with a child of her own. In the farm supply store, the narrator is driven to distraction watching the small act of nurturing between the mother and her son as they go about adopting a chick, and she cannot stop thinking about this moment in...