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Post 4: Quote Analysis #2

After having her worst fears about her son confirmed, Christine ventures into her room alone. “Naked, I stood in front of the mirror and looked at my alien body. I forced myself to look at the wrinkles in my skin, at my sagging breasts. I do not know myself, I thought.”


 Christine has discovered in the space of twenty-four hours that she had a son and that he died. If she hadn't had the accident and if Ben hadn't lied to protect her (thus making her feel she couldn't trust him), she could have gone through that joy and then grief with her husband and been able to process it in a healthy way. Instead, she must keep to herself and not show the true extent of her knowledge and emotions. However, Christine seeing a stranger's body in the mirror symbolizes the extent of her devastation.

Our bodies sustain us and we are utterly dependent on them. Our minds and bodies move together so often that they are one. So when Christine looks in the mirror and doesn’t recognize her body, this shows just how drastic the effects of her tragedies have been, in order to make an integral part of her is out of reach. Additionally, she feels much, much younger than the age her body shows and is frustrated by her mortality that she can't identify with. This lack of connection to her body exemplifies her state of being at the time: that everything feels wrong and not hers, like when she wakes up next to a stranger every day, yet she recognizes that this must be true and has to resign to her fate and her fifty-year-old body. She can't escape the raw truth of her aging body.

This quote also shows how lost Christine is in her identity, similar to the previous quote. However, this time she is having trouble because of her lack of connection to her body, not her memories. Our bodies tell stories about us, through scars, tans, bruises, and wrinkles. They signify our age, our health, and some history: all important parts of who we are, and all things that Christine cannot identify with correctly, according to the body in the mirror. Christine feels an immense amount of grief on both a personal and a familial level.

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