The Wall

As the protagonist’s time in the mountains lengthens, her isolation and the drastic changes to her everyday life force her to confront her past. As she does so, she comes to realize how free she now is, unburdened by others and their expectations of her. Thus, through the protagonist’s experiences alone in nature, she discovers liberation through isolation. 

With no society left to dictate who she is and what she should do, the protagonist gains a clearer understanding of who she is: “If I think today of the woman I once was […] I feel little sympathy for her. But I shouldn’t like to judge her too harshly. After all, she never had the chance of consciously shaping her life” (66). Alone in the mountains, the protagonist has the freedom to dictate what every day ahead looks like, leading a life based on necessity and survival. She feels as though she did not direct her own life before, instead burdened by the responsibilities and expectations of gender roles. 

The primary source of this constriction, in her mind, was the role of motherhood: “When she was young she unwittingly assumed a heavy burden by starting a family, and from then on she was always hemmed in by an intimidating amount of duties and worries” (66).