The novel follows the journey of Marianne—affectionately nicknamed ‘Ma’—as her youngest daughter, Sophie, decides to move abroad after finishing high school. The reader follows Cita (the oldest daughter), Dr. Tomasow (Marianne’s therapist), and Aunt Ottilie (Marianne’s sister) through a few emotional Christmas days. Each character ponders motherhood, womanhood, marriage, family, and more as Sophie comes to her decision and shares it with her family. By the end, Marianne transforms from a woman dependent on a man and family relations into a self-sufficient woman who chooses to be a mother and can confidently reject a marriage proposal.
I propose that this novel is a particularly important work insofar as it is a fictional instantiation of her most famous philosophical work Der Mensch als Weib. Insofar as we observe Salomé’s fictional concepts play out in the real world, as it were, we can gain a greater understanding of how she understands Woman, selfhood, motherhood, and freedom (for gendered individuals).
