Analysis of Anna Quindlen's One True Thing: This novel is not so much the story of a child’s effort to understand their parents, as it is homage to the underestimated role of mother and wife. Do you agree?Contention: Disagree. The story told is that of

One True Thing tells the tale of Ellen’s endeavour to fathom the true nature of her parents. Ellen’s journey of discovery encompasses the reassessment of both her parents’ characters, the roles in the family they play, and her own personal evaluation and transformation, which stemmed from what she had come to realise. The views of women, mothers and wives, explored in this text are merely coincidental of what Ellen encounters through her experiences, they do not play a stronger part in the dominant themes.

Ellen worked to uncover the other side of her parents that she was blind to before, the truer side. This demonstrated that the novel is the story of her effort to know her parents. At the beginning of the book, Ellen reflects upon the relationship she shared with her mother and father. “My mother was like dinner: I needed her in order to live, but I did not pay much attention to what went into her… My father was desert…I may have inherited my predilection to judge hars...