Undone\" by Wally Lamb Dolores

¶ … Undone" by Wally Lamb

Dolores Price's Path to Self-Recovery: Formation of Self through the Portrayals of Women in "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb

The novel "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb mirrors the realities of women in the society today. While most have not experienced all forms of abuses the protagonist Dolores Price experienced in the novel, women can identify, in one way or another, the different kinds of abuses she was subjected and subjected herself to. More than just a path to self-recovery as a traumatized female individual, Lamb's novel is a reflection of different facets of Dolores as a woman, seen through the different women characters of the novel.

This paper explores Dolores's path to self-recovery. The analysis argues that the different women in the protagonist's life made it possible for her to recover, wherein one woman acts as a "facet" of Dolores's personality that helped her to construct, eventually, her own identity -- that is, to truly become Dolores Price. Thus, in her path to self-recovery, Dolores also undergoes self-discovery: she is able to create an identity for herself, and be able to assert herself, not within the shadows of her mother, grandmother, Dr. Shaw, or other people, but simply an assertion of herself that is based on her own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. It is through realizing her mother's weakness, her grandmother's strength, and Dr. Shaw's understanding that she is able to develop this newfound and true personality that is distinctly Dolores Price's.

Dolores Price's Path to Self-Recovery: Portrayals of Women in Dolores's Life

This chapter is discussed into three sections, illustrating Dolores's journey to self-discovery as comprising of three different and distinct personalities that influenced her in life. The first section delves into her experience as a victim with her mother, wherein she experienced not only sexual abuse, but self-inflicted (emotional) abuse as a result of her being a victim of rape and living with an abusive father.

The second section looks into another important character in the novel, which is Dolores's grandmother. It is through her grandmother's character that Dolores was able to draw strength from, growing up with a victimized and abused mother and becoming a victim of rape as an adolescent. Finally, the third "projection" of her recovered self is through the character of Dr. Shaw, Dolores's psychiatrist, who, despite his being male, acted as a surrogate mother to the then motherless Dolores. It is finally through Dr. Shaw that Dolores achieved both recovery and self-discovery.

Combining these projections or facets of the three different characters in the novel create the entirety of Dolores as the protagonist of the novel. From these three individuals, she is able to understand herself more as an individual, eventually realizing that she cannot be Dolores without these individuals. In effect, each individual acts as an inevitable part of Dolores's whole personality.

Dolores as the victim: Projections of victimization from her mother

In the novel, Dolores's mother became the embodiment of the female victim: she was not only abused by her husband, but was portrayed as constantly taken advantage of and victimized by other men in her life. It is through these voluntary and involuntary forms of victimization that Dolores grew up having the psyche of a victim as well. This belief projected itself when Dolores was raped by a "family friend," Jack.

As a battered wife, Dolores's mother went through a cycle of assertiveness-subservience-rebellion behavior. This is illustrated in one fight she had with her husband, wherein she accused him of being "an old lady's whore." Accusing him of this, Dolores's mother showed assertiveness and voiced out her feelings after years of suspecting that her husband was earning money by maintaining a relationship with a wealthy, old woman. However, her assertiveness dissolved into subservience when her husband used physical abuse, proving to her who is in control of the family and the relationship. Her eventual decision to divorce her husband later became the act of rebellion that, as the novel progressed, did not alleviate her victimization, but just transformed it (26):

She spun around and faced him, suds flying away from her hand..."It means what you think it means...That you're an old lady's whore." Inside I heard him slapping her, kitchen chairs knocking over...The back door banged open and Daddy was rushing into the backyard...Ma was running after him...He let his hands go. The small fluttering silhouette he released was Petey...I hated both of them.