Mildred Pierce

In the novel, every worthy accomplishment results in some sort of pushback. Forward momentum always comes at a cost—sometimes so serious a cost that the initial action does not seem to have been worth it in retrospect.

Mildred appears to be on top of the world when she figures out how to open her own restaurant. Everything is going her way: Bert’s company finds it advantageous to donate a property for her use; she can quit her demeaning waitressing job; and she even meets the sexually alluring Monty, who sweeps her off her feet and takes her to his private lake cabin for two days. However, as soon as Mildred returns, she learns that her daughter Ray is in the hospital. Ray dies soon after, seemingly as some kind of retribution for Mildred’s success and sexual indulgence. This plot twist draws on a trope familiar from 19th-century novels, in which female characters that experience sexual desire or pleasure are often punished in particularly cruel ways.

A similar reversal occurs when Mildred’s complex plan to woo Veda back into her life succeeds. Mildred is convinced that she has finally forged the mother-daughter bond she has dreamt of: She marries the morally suspect Monty, funds his lavish lifestyle to make him reconnect to his high society friends, and manages to entice Veda to her old haunts. Just as she is basking in Veda’s musical success, however, comes the hammer: To accomplish this dizzying maneuver, Mildred has gotten into huge debt and her creditors demand that Mildred no longer allow Veda to freeload. Moreover, Mildred also discovers that Veda is having an affair with Monty. Her family and business life in ruins, Mildred has no recourse but to return to the traditional domestic arrangement whose dissolution kicked off the novel: Married to Bert, living in her old house in Glendale, and selling the odd pie for money.