The Femme Fatale in American Literature By Ghada Sasa

Although the novel revolves around Alice’s hopes and tactics in attracting a wealthy husband, it also presents the dilemmas and struggles Alice has to put up with because of her devious mother, Mrs. Adams. Alice is not the only victim of her mother, but it is Mr. Adams who is mainly victimized by his wife.

The novel depicts the disintegration of a lower-middle-class family. Mr. Adams works for the company of the wealthy Mr. Lamb and has to take some time off from work because he falls sick. During his time of convalescence, Mrs. Adams taunts her husband and urges him “to find something really good to get into” (10), very determined that “he mustn’t go back to that old hole again” (11). Like Mrs. Lapham, Mrs. Adams uses her children as an excuse to motivate him to better their lives and their social standing. She struggles throughout the novel to convince him to build a glue factory and, consequently, leave his employer, who was originally the one who had come up with the idea of building a glue factory and, 20 years ago, had asked Mr. Adams to help him in implementing his plans. When Mr. Adams finally gives in to his wife’s ideas, he is devastated by his employer, Mr. Lamb, who builds an adjacent, bigger, and more advanced glue factory. Eventually, Mr. Lamb makes peace with Mr. Adams and buys him out of the business, and Mr. Adams returns to his previous employment with the Lamb Company.

As a result of the never-ending nagging of Mrs. Adams, Alice is confused and faces serious questions as to where she stands. When she meets Arthur Russell, she pretends to be the daughter of a wealthy businessman and carries on her role as such until he discovers that she has been lying to him all along. She loses Arthur as a potential husband but grows morally at the end when she finally learns to understand and accept the position of her father.

The mother, on the other hand, never does learn to accept her husband’s employment and financial situation.