Hot Milk

Sofia’s primary struggle in the text is searching for a way to break the codependent tie between herself and her mother, Rose. While Sofia tries to be a supportive daughter to Rose, she gradually realizes that she needs to make space for her own desires and choices as well. Through Sofia’s character arc, the novel explores the struggle for independence.

Sofia’s life is initially dominated almost entirely by Rose’s needs. Since Rose is constantly coming up with new symptoms and illnesses, she requires Sofia’s attention and service. Specifically, Rose’s claim that her legs and feet do not work forces Sofia to act as Rose’s legs. Sofia notes, “I am twenty-five and I am limping with my mother to keep in step with her. My legs are her legs” (14), implying both that Sofia is taking on her mother’s symptoms and that she cannot use her legs for herself. Part of independence is acting in one’s own self-interest, which Sofia cannot do while she is loaning her limbs and time to Rose.

Levy presents multiple forms of dependence in the novel, each of which informs Sofia’s pursuit of independence. Christos and Ingrid reveal alternative forms of dependence that Sofia examines and evaluates to see if they are different from her own. Christos is dependent on God for his sense of self, even though he pretends to be the independent head of household in his new family. As Alexandra reveals, Christos intends to leave all his money to the church. Sofia specifically notes that she prefers the suffering of her own growth to “napping on a sofa under a blanket with an older man by my side and a baby on my lap” (202). Similarly, Sofia comes to realize that Ingrid, who appears independent, is dependent on men’s attention to prevent her from realizing her true sexuality. Sofia calls Ingrid “a voyeur” of “her own desire” (176), meaning that, like Sofia, Ingrid is not free to explore herself or others in earnest. In each case, though Christos fled his family to start over in Greece and Ingrid travels the world, Sofia has more freedom by the end of the novel than either of them.

The ending of Hot Milk shows Sofia attempt to shock Rose into either dying or admitting her own hypochondria. Sofia flees to Gomez’s clinic to tell him of Rose’s possible death, but Gomez tells her: “We have to mourn our dead, but we cannot let them take over our life” (214). Gomez means both that the literal dead should not hold power over the living, but he also means that those who have chosen not to live, like Rose, should not bind the living, as she did to Sofia.

After Rose admits to being able to walk, Sofia has a vision of Rose buying movie tickets for them, picturing a life in which they can return to a healthy mother-daughter relationship. The jolt of attempted matricide shows Rose that Sofia cannot be her servant forever, but Sofia still wants to be Rose’s daughter, simply without the burden of the other roles Rose has imposed on her. In this way, both women regain their independence at the novel’s end.