Independence

Perhaps the most important theme in Grace’s character arc is the journey to independence, a state which proves difficult, verging on impossible for a young woman in the 1940s to achieve, though it is this struggle that makes it all the sweeter. At the novel’s start, Grace is dissatisfied with her life, narrow and confined as it is, but as she has been raised in a culture that normalizes her frustrated state she is unable to address her itch. It is only through the dramatic catalyst of the fire that Grace is able to realize that she has been living as a total dependent on others. Through necessity, she begins to experience the joy of individual agency, a right which she must fight to retain after her husband’s return.

Grace is only in her early twenties at the start of the novel, and...