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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Edible Woman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gendered Expectations vs. Personal Identity
Consumerism and Consumption
Bodies, Pregnancy, and Food
Language, Meaning, and Alienation
Routine, Repetition, and Resistance
Summary
Analysis
“So here I am,” Marian thinks. It’s Labor Day, and it feels strange for Marian not to be going into work. It already feels like Friday was a lifetime ago. Marian decides she won’t tell people at the office about the engagement, since she wants to keep her job for a while. Marian tries to plan ahead, vowing to avoid the kind of life she has seen at Clara and Joe’s house.
Though Marian is still in the first-person here, the hazy, short style of this chapter shows how much Marian’s views of her life and herself have already blurred. Marian’s avoidance of her kiss with Duncan—ostensibly a betrayal of her brand-new fiancée—further emphasizes her ambivalence and confusion.
Themes
Marian decides to be productive instead of sitting around, so she plans to edit the questionnaire, shower, and clean her room. As she pictures cleaning her room, Marian’s mind lingers on two old dolls she has kept, mostly for sentimental reasons. She feels she should probably throw the dolls out. Marian’s mind flashes on Duncan, but she redirects, thinking of the letter she should write to tell her parents the good news. “I must get organized,” thinks Marian, still sitting on her bed. “I have a lot to do.”
Marian has earlier felt that both she and Ainsley are objectified, treated like dolls by Peter and Len, respectively. So it is telling that as Marian tries to clean her apartment, normally such an easy routine, she gets caught up on these old toys, fake women that seem to signal her scary fate. Now, the daily tasks that once helped Marian feel comforted and tethered to reality just pose one more source of overwhelm.
Themes
