| Finding their environments threatening and malevolent, the female protagonists in The Edible Woman, Surfacing, Lady Oracle, and Life Before Man withdraw psychologically. Their psychological escapes take many forms: fantasies, alternative worlds, delusions, hallucinations, and madness. While the behavior of these protagonists is irrational and illogical to the "sane" world, it allows them to reintegrate their fragmented lives. The protagonists emerge from their psychological cocoons with a clarity of vision, recognizing both their multiplicity and their complicity. |
