Sarah Fisher appears to be a woman willing to submit wholly to her husband's word and will. Does this assessment bear out in the end? Did you see any clues throughout the novel to suggest anything different?

"You know how a mother would do anything, if it meant saving her child", Sarah tells Ellie. What does motherhood finally mean to Sarah Fisher?

Referring to killing the chickens (without remorse), Sarah says "I do what I have to do. you of all people should understand." What is the author implying here? Why should Ellie understand this?

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

At the time I read the chicken quote...I thought Sarah meant that you defend people who you may know are guilty as a lawyer, but you do it anyway because it's your duty. I thought Sarah was implying that you do the things you HAVE to and just don't think about it or regret them because it's just what's expected. In the end of course, it has a much deeper, darker meaning.

I sort of suspected at some point near the end of the book that she might have been the one that killed the baby (or did she???) and I figured out during the "tea for pregnancy nausea" discussion between Katie and Ellie that Sarah must have known that Katie was pregnant and just pretended she didn't. So it seems that on the "surface" Sarah did what she was supposed to do, but there was an underlying part of her that rebelled against Aaron's ecisions. This was also illustrated when she snuck Katie out continually to go see her brother. So she was willing to disobey Aaron's will...but only behind his back.

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Yeah, I agree. She was only willing to do things behind his back. Here is my question, do you really think he didn't know what was going on? He seems like he would be exremely hard to "pull one over" on.

Motherhood meant everything to Sarah, and she didn't want to lose her last child. She already lost two, one to death and one to college. So I can understand where she was coming from to an extent....but I agree, did she kill the baby or was the baby already dead, and she was just trying to act like it never happened?? Good point.

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

I agree with both of you, because i have no better answer..........lol

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"Go on, get outside, get the stink blown off ya!!"

I found the whole chicken thing sort of funny. (An aside from the question, sorry.) While I have never killed a chicken, my mother and grandmother have had to do that. It is just what you do if you want to eat. I sort of found Ellie's reaction rather naive.

But back to the question at hand. . .

I think one of the reasons I did not care for this book is that I knew Sarah did it early on. It seemed pretty obvious to me and there was no doubt in my mind how it would turn out in the end. Here is this woman who lost almost everything, was hanging on by a thread, and was in a relationship with a domineering man AND was part of a culture that did not give women much of a say on anything. She was bound to snap. I also figured she must have known that Katie was pregnant. She just would, I thought.

I also think part of her was a bit jealous of Leda who had sort of escaped. Leda seemed to have the best of both worlds. Yes, she was shunned, but obviously, had a decent relationship with her sister and seemed to have a good life with her husband. It must have been hard for Sarah to watch.

Sarah did not seem to be the saint that everybody thought her to be. She did things in dubious ways by sending her daughter to see her brother, etc. BUT, I don't know if I would have been any different with such a domineering husband.

Claire, your response just gave me goose bumps!!

WOW, that is a VERY good interpretation!! I never thought about it that way, but you could be on to something there....

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe