#destroyal

[just-random-anime]

[noise-garden]

[survivingsurfacing]

The abortion of the narrator’s child is a deeply traumatic experience, one that has haunted her throughout the novel. After her abortion, the narrator remarks that she feels they have

“planted death in me like a seed”

(Surfacing 145). Her denial of involvement in the decision to destroy her child, by giving that responsibility to an outside agency, creates a sense of amputation from even her most base impulses as a human being and a mother. The narrator has never had a strong female influence in her life, as

her own mother failed to have confidence in herself

as well. Her mother is able to influence the brother’s behavior only when she is directly present, where the narrator is unable to alter anyone’s behavior, suggesting that

female power is dwindling as time progresses

and new generations evolve.