Motherhood

The author construes motherhood as a social construct that negatively impacts society by creating unrealistic expectations of how women must perform once they have children. Adèle loves her son Lucien, but her love for him is more complicated than the “simple” love that is expected of a mother for her child: “Lucien is a burden, a constraint that she struggles to get used to. Adèle isn’t sure where her love for her son fits in among all her other jumbled feelings … The love is there somewhere, she has no doubt about that. A rough, misshapen love, dented and bruised by everyday life.” (29). Because Adèle does not fit the archetype of a perfect mother, she feels ostracized from her role as a mother to Lucien, and often finds herself abandoning him in favor of her own pursuits.

Social expectations of the life-steps that...