Gender Roles

Throughout the novel, the author explores the ways in which stereotypical gender roles might complicate the individual's understanding of self. In The Husbands, main character Nora Spangler feels trapped by her domestic responsibilities. Though she loves her husband, Hayden, and daughter, Liv, she is also determined to succeed at her legal career. Therefore, at the novel's start, when Nora is up for partner at her firm, pregnant with her second child, and receiving little help from her husband, she feels unsupported and alienated. Her character is wedged between conflicting cultural, familial, and personal expectations. In Chapter 1, an argument with Hayden about her work colleague makes her realize "that she could choose to gripe about Gary here and instead chooses to gripe about Hayden. There's something wrong with her. She's going to ruin her marriage if she keeps it up" (14). Despite Nora's frustrations at home and...