The Fire-Dwellers demonstrates The Mask of Motherhood because Stacey’s throughout the novel has been going through an enormous struggle with trying to find her identity after her marriage with Mac and having children. Laurence describes Stacey’s struggle with flashbacks to her past, her thoughts and third point narrative. This essay will demonstrate how Stacey’s life is an ideal representative of the theory of the Mask of Motherhood by illustrating her camouflage through her struggle within, her responsibility of being a mother and wife and overall the suppression she feels.
The Mask of Motherhood described by Susan Maushart is a theory that is defined as a socially constructed representative of Motherhood. The mask is a misconception of how mothers should act, think, look and all around be. The idealized representative of a mother is impossible. No mother is the perfect mother because no mother can be the mother that society has constructed but all mothers put on a charade and pretend they are the perfect mother, which is the Mask of Motherhood. Mothers are silenced because they do not want to seem like they cannot play their part as a mother but most if not all mothers have the same concern. Maushart talks to journalist