Female identity in the novels of Marge Piercy

Women have traditionally formed their identity around standards created by a patriarchal society. In this way, they have often denied themselves autonomy and the process of self-discovery. With this knowledge, Marge Piercy through fiction re-imagines "the traditional female concern with personal relationships and the details of daily life and then expand (s) these concerns to include a wider and wider swath of human experience" (Snitow 719). Most of Piercy's novels intertwine politically motivated plots with female characters who reach a new conscious level of understanding about origins of identities, and thus these characters engage in an awareness that allows them to discover a self-formed identity. Piercy realizes that she must challenge the prescribed identity of women before she can concern herself with personal identity. In doing this, she understands that gender precedes identity (Lorraine 18), and politically, she relates her ideas in a feminist way. Because her writing takes place from the 1950s through the 90s, Piercy's work realizes the change in women's identity through this particular time. Moreover, Piercy is able to show the history of the confinement and limitations suffered by women in a sexist society. In doing this, she empowers both her female characters and her female readers to begin to realize personal choice in creating a self-identity.