Relationships in Braided Lives Essay -- Braided Lives

Relationships in Braided Lives In Marge Piercy's Braided Lives, Jill goes through many consecutive, turbulent relationships with men. This pattern begins with her father, continues with her best friend, and then continues through many other relationships in her college years. Each relationship affects Jill and how she views men and herself. She has a very negative outlook on men. In fact, most of the male-female relationships in the novel are not positive experiences for the women involved. Jill's own self-esteem is continuously torn down and ruined by each negative relationship that she enters. Eventually Jill finds true happiness, but only after these significant relationships teach her how to love herself. Jill's father was not caring or kind to Jill regarding any aspect of her life. He wanted a boy and got Jill instead. He treated her like the boy he wanted. She desperately wanted his love and attention, and she spent a lot of time trying to make him happy by acting like the son he wanted. "He wanted a boy. At 12 I made the grand try...For months on end I sat ...