Narrator

The first person narrator remains unnamed throughout the novel. At the start of Motherhood, the narrator is 37 years old. Although she admits that at almost 40, “you could be said to be young,” she feels that she is too old to be realizing that she has yet “to put together a world view” (1). She therefore determines to create something outside of herself that will know more than she knows and that will offer her perspective on the world. The narrator’s pressure to locate and define her values and beliefs soon proves inextricable from her indecision regarding motherhood. Because she knows that her time to have children is running out, she feels weighed by the decision to have or not to have children. This decision also exists in tandem with her concerns about her writing. Although she has never wanted children and has always wanted to write, she feels...