Feminism

Through Praxis Duveen's story the author crafts a complex feminist text, which comments upon the societal strictures which have weighed the female body, mind, and spirit for generations. The chapters written in the third person, past tense trace Praxis's life from girlhood into old age, thus capturing the social climate over the course of several decades. The chapters written in the first person, present tense, detail Praxis's life as an old woman, as she reflects upon her attempts to betray societal expectations of femininity. The author introduces her interests in these notions in the novel’s opening chapters. In Chapter 2, Praxis muses on women's inherent intimacy with pain, passages which inspire her commentary on the New Women. While describing her physical discomforts, Praxis says these pains are "nothing compared to that pain in the heart, the soul, and the mind—those three majestic seats of female...