Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders, Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood are three novels that portray the life of woman in many different ways. They all depict the turmoils and strife's that women, in many cultures and time periods, suffer from. In some cases it's the woman's fault, in others it's simply bad luck. In any case, all three novels succeed in their goal of showing what a life of selling oneself short is like through the eyes of a woman.

In Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders, a woman, Moll is simply trying to get by and is given a wonderful start because she was born in a prison. Moll Flanders leads a life full of crime and prostitution because she feels it is the only way she can survive. She becomes do dependent on theft that she steals even when she does not need any more luxuries. In Moll Flanders, the reader at times feels bad for the main character because she really has no luck when it comes to husbands or life in general. Yet at other times we resent the fact that she leaves her children and continues stealing for no reason.

Moll Flanders is somewhat ambiguous because the reader does not know whether to feel sorry for M

Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood is another view on life through the eyes of a woman. In this scenario, the woman is convinced that the only way she can achieve self worth is through the production of children. In this novel the reader feels quite sympathetic toward the main character. Her situation seems extremely odd and unconventional compared to today's customs, because at many times she was somewhat condemned for not having children.

Emma's problems begin when she is at the convent and she learns about romantic ideals from novels that she reads. She comes to believe that these storybook romances occur everyday in everyone's lives. Albert Thibaudet wrote that "Mme. Bovary is not a sensuous person; she is above all a 'romantic', a mental type, as the psychologists would call it; her fault stems from an unbridled imagination rather than from a lack of control over the senses."

In this book, the main character Nnu Ego literally sold herself to keep faithful to the long lasting traditions. Her husband Nnaife paid a bride price for her: "Did I not pay your bride price? Am I not your owner?" (48). This should seem disturbing to the reader, a price was paid so that a man could have a wife and produce male heirs.

Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. W.W. Norton & Company, New York: 1973.

Nnu Ego was always taught that a woman's only purpose in life was to produce children. "She had been brought up to believe that children made a woman" (219). So, when he first child randomly died, she thought that she lost all her self worth. "They all agreed that a woman without a child for her husband was a failed woman" (62). This affected Nnu Ego very much emotionally, she even attempted suicide.

oll's disadvantages, or feel hatred for her irresponsibility. Moll is somewhat portrayed as ignorant, in that she does not know that what she does is wrong. E. M. Forster wrote that "A nature such as hers cannot for long distinguish between doing wrong and getting caught."

Some common words found in the essay are:
Nnu Ego, Moll Flanders, Mme Bovary, Life Misery, Joys Motherhood, Emma Emma, Madame Bovary, Emma Bovary, Regret Reflections, Emma Charles, moll flanders, nnu ego, reader feels, madame bovary, joys motherhood, main character, feels sympathy, self worth, flaubert's madame bovary, life times, feels bad, gustave flaubert's madame, daniel defoe's moll, buchi emecheta's joys, emecheta's joys motherhood,
Approximate Word count = 1695
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)