The Farm
The farm is a symbol for the expectations placed on Mattie because of her gender and socioeconomic status. As a poor woman in the 19th century, she is expected to help take care of her family farm and eventually marry another farmer, whose house she will take care of and whose children she will have. In spite of the fact that she wants nothing to do with this future, the farm remains a constant reminder of the expectations she has to face.
Mattie’s promise to her mother
Mattie’s promise acts as an allegory for the obligations tying women to lives they do not want. Although she wants to leave home and go to college, pursuing an intellectual future instead of one as a housewife, she is bound to the farm by the expectation that as a woman, she will take on the role of caring for her sisters. Although she has an older brother and a father who are both capable of taking care of the farm and each other, her brother abandoned the family because he did not want to be a farmer, a privilege granted to men and not women, because men do not face the same kind of expectations and obligations that women do. Her father does not take on domestic work because he is not expected to do so, which means that Mattie ends up doing all of it, even though her father absolutely could. When Mattie promised her mother that she would take care of her family, she played into the expectation of women feeling an obligation to help others at the cost of their own happiness, at risk of extreme guilt if they choose to lead their own lives. Men do not experience this kind of guilt and obligation.
Books
Books are a motif that represent Mattie’s wish to leave home. She goes to the traveling library to escape her stifling life, and reads excessively to educate herself so that she can go to college and leave home. She projects herself onto the lives of her favorite authors, such as Jane Austen, and wonders if she ever had to make the choices that Mattie does.
Minnie’s Childbirth
Minnie’s birth is an allegory for women forced to have children without proper information or preparation. Minnie has children because it’s what is expected of her, but after giving birth is mentally and physically traumatized. Her body is physically damaged and in pain, and in terms of her psychological state, she is terrified to have sex because she fears that she’ll get pregnant again. Her situation is an allegory for the real-world women who have children without receiving proper education on what pregnancy and childbirth entail, which means that they are completely unprepared for birth and traumatized by it when it happens.
Emily Wilcox
Emily Wilcox is an allegory for women who have tried to speak out against sexism and faced resistance because of it. She is an inspiration for Mattie and publishes a number of feminist poems, but experiences resistance from the rest of society, including her husband. She represents women around the world who have tried to speak up against oppression but have had their voices silenced, and who are forced to leave the societies that have resisted them.
