What metaphors are used in One True Thing by Anna Quindlen?

When Ellen and her mother start their book club, they choose three books that provide interesting metaphors for the representation of female roles in the novel: Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, and Anna Karenina. The first book the women tackle in their book club is Pride and Prejudice - a book that polarizes the roles of women through the characters Jane and Elizabeth. Jane, like Kate, is a good housewife. Elizabeth, like Ellen, is a rebel, shirking from the traditional roles of women in society. Kate wants to know why, in the novel, Jane is treated as a nitwit and is not respected simply because she has chosen a traditional life. Kate wants to know what message this polarization of women sends to the readers. It is impossible for the reader to ignore the parallels between the lives of the Gulden women and the lives of Austin's female characters in Pride and Prejudice. Although she never states it directly, it is clear that Kate is demanding to know why, since she chose to become a homemaker, she is not respected by her daughter, and perhaps by her academically minded husband.