Marriage and Loss of Self-Identity in Joan Didion’s A Book of Common Prayer

Abstract

The narratives of marriage have evolved in the early twenty-first century. In American society, they contrast sharply with mid- to late-twentieth century depictions of marriage in literature. Since the late twentieth century, American woman authors have crafted their own narratives on marriage. This study entitled “Marriage and loss of self- identity in Joan Didion’s A Book of Common Prayer,” examines Joan Didion’s A Book of Common Prayer, which can be considered a memoir because it explicitly addresses issues confronted by white, Western American women throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Didion examines marriage in her work, exploring the theme in relation to her social, cultural, and psychological contexts. Examining her biographies in chronological order provides insight into the evolution of her perspectives on marriage. Marriage, in Didion’s narratives, serves as a reflection of not only the social and economic changes that have taken place over the years in the lives of women, but also the psychological changes that take place in their minds. Didion’s female protagonists attain financial fulfilment through marriage, yet marriage also ensnares them. Each woman character enters or persists in her marriage insincerely, because marriage undermines their individuality through psychological pain, physical violence, emotional abandonment, and sexual estrangement.