Bunner Sisters Pt. 3- [Minori Wisti]

Throughout this novel I have been drawn to look at Ann Eliza's growth as a character, especially in reading the last part. The passage that struck me was, describing Ann Eliza, "For the first time in her life she dimly faced the awful problem of the inutility of self-sacrifice....Self-effacement for the good of others had always seemed to her both natural and necessary; but then she had taken it for granted that it implied the securing of that good. Now she perceived that to refuse gifts of life does not ensure their transmission to those for whom they have been surrendered; and her familiar heaven was unpeopled." I think this also becomes really interesting in terms of part of the women's movement. Perhaps Wharton also meant to touch upon a collective consciousness of women who are realizing they can do something else to make lives better.