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Heartburn Wittily: Literary Analysis

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Nora Ephron’s Heartburn wittily explores six weeks in the life of Rachel Samstat. It is a heartbreaking autobiographical novel that portrays the breakdown of marriage due to the infidelity of her second husband Carl Bernstein. Ephron illustrates the power of storytelling and how it can result in positive change through the paradox of relationships: despite the affair Rachel still loves her husband, however, she gradually realizes that he will never return the love, and, as such, she learns to accept this. As the novel progresses, Rachel’s thought process changes through the act of telling her story, and she looks within herself to realize that she is not to blame for her husband’s affair as Mark acted on his own accord. Rachel finds the strength to free herself from the guilt of thinking that she had failed her husband and comes to the understanding that ending the marriage and moving onwards with her life will ultimately lead to a brighter future. Please help me with my thesis – I haven’t written a paper with a thesis in years!
At the onset of the novel, Rachel learns that while she is seven months pregnant, her husband Mark is involved with another woman. She views herself as the victim, being blamed for the affair by her husband – “I sat there on the couch with tears rolling down my face and …show more content…

They say all marriages go through something like this” (98). This thought of Rachel’s is interesting. For me, it emphasizes her misconception that women should simply accept infidelity as the norm. Infidelity is defined as a breach of mutual trust in an intimate relationship. In the beginning of the novel, Rachel believes that this definition applies only to women. Subsequently, we observe Rachel to become depressed and deeply saddened as she views herself as the victim being blamed for her husband’s

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