THE DISCOURSE OF MOTHERHOOD AND MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP IN THE NOVEL ONE TRUE THING BY ANNA QUINDLEN

Abstract

The most successful novel by Anna Quindlen, One True Thing depicts issues relevant to the role of women in family and society, but mainly focuses on the mother-daughter relationship, their relationships with other family members and the community, as well as the reaction of the patriarchal society to different moral dilemmas such as euthanasia which is a central theme in this novel.   The novel One True Thing is a novel of dichotomization of female characters. The central theme is the bond between the mother Kate and the daughter Ellen growing stronger each day they spend together. The narrator of the story is the main heroine Ellen Gulden, who returns home to take care of her mother Kate, dying of cancer. The aim of this research paper is to present the discourse of motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship by using excerpts from the novel and analyzing them with the theories of discourse proposed by Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin and Diane Macdonell as well as the sociological and feminist theories represented mainly by the theories of Nancy Chodorow and Patrice DiQuinzio.