The Mill on the Floss

When you read a chapter-a-day on a book for three months, you tend to get fiercely attached to the characters, either positively or negatively. That's what happened to me with The Mill on the Floss.

I liked Maggie from page one. She is everything I love in a character.

Her brother? Her mother? Even her father? Not so much.

All of these people as well as her extended family members and her fellow townsfolk forced Maggie into a box that limited her in many ways. Maggie was judged from the very start by her coloring and her dislike of doing the things her mother and others expected from girls and women. Her many strong assets were ignored and she wasn't allowed to develop them in ways that would benefit her or the world.

What a tragedy.

And I quickly grew to wish that Maggie would find a way to find happiness in life without relying on the opinion of her brother. Of course, that wasn't going to happen. Again, a tragedy.

And, worse, her brother blocked all of her ways of finding happiness.

How small others made Maggie.

Reading this book has made me sad for the women who have come before me and who were unable to be allowed to pursue their dreams.