Fly Away Home
By Jennifer Weiner
Brief Intro
Sylvie and Richard met in while they were at Yale Law School. They got married after graduation and both practiced law. Richard was later promoted to partner and then served as senator. Sylvie only practiced law for two years until she decided to dedicate herself to serving her husband. They had two daughters that could not be any more different. Diana, the oldest, is an ER Physician and Lizzie is a recovering drug addict.
Sylvie
Sylvie graduated from Yale Law School like her mother Selma who was a chief judge in New York. After her short-lived legal career, she decided to dedicate her life to her husband and his success. She is basically described as a trophy wife in the novel. She is always behind her husband looking thin and appealing, dieting to maintain extra weight off, and undergoing cosmetic surgeries. The way she is portrayed resembles Betty Friedan's description in "The Feminine Mystique" given that Sylvie does not use the education she received. She ends up being a housewife and serving her husband and in the mix of things she is unhappy. She dedicated her days to organizing luncheons and planning campaigning events. However, all of this comes to a sudden halt when Richard has an affair with a legislative aide. Sylvie is lost and heart broken. She does not know what to do. Should she forgive him? How could he do this to her after so many years? She had lived her life for him!
Sylvie as a mother
Sylvie blamed herself for her daughters' anguish. She had put her husband and his political success before her daughters. She did not have good communication with her daughter Diana, and felt inadequate when could not comfort Lizzie with her drug addictions. She feels guilty that she did not report when Lizzie was molested by a 17yr old boy when she was only 12. Richard had convinced her to keep this silent in order to shield his public image. Ever since, Sylvie blamed herself because she felt that this incident led to Lizzie to drugs.
Diana
Diana was a successful ER Physician who lived an unhappy marriage with Gary. Even though she is very busy with work, she makes sure she is on top of everything at home and with her son, Milo. She spends her days off with him and makes sure that every activity he is engaged in is educational. Although she is unsatisfied with her marriage, she is dedicated to her son and his well being. Hence, her son is what keeps her from confronting Gary about her unhappiness with their relationship. Nonetheless, at work Doug Vance, an intern pursues her, and she eventually gives in to temptation and maintains an affair with him for 6 months until he finds out that she was a mother. Doug rejects both Diana and her son. This sudden event prompts her to tell Gary the entire truth. She then leaves Philadelphia with Milo and feels like a complete failure and the worst mother ever. She had cheated on her son's father and had taken her son away from Gary, his friends, and his home.
Even though Diana had everything the average woman would want, a successful career, a home, a husband and a son she still did not feel fulfilled.
Motherhood in Fly Away Home
Both Sylvie and Diana struggle to maintain a happy marriage but always try their best to cater comfort to their children. The mothers in the novel are portrayed as women whom current mothers can potentially relate to. Their roles exemplify that balancing work, marriage, and motherhood is complex. It seems as if women/mothers always place other people's happiness a priority and forget about caring for themselves and their own happiness. Sylvie gives up her entire identity prior to being the "senator's wife" and Diana sacrifices her happiness for Milo, her son. In the end they both work to create a balance in their lives that would help them live a happy and healthy lifestyle. Sylvie, the author described would be the mother she hadn't been when the girls were young, she would do what she could to be there for Milo and Lizzie's baby when it came..she would take care of herself, not just Richard..and maybe he could learn to take care of her." Diana cut her shifts to 2 a week at the ER and helped run an organization for mothers who'd been born with their babies addicted to drugs.
Lizzie
Lizzie was always the odd child. She was beautiful but lacked a sense of direction. She fell into a drug addiction and spent her time away in rehab. The summer when she was released and was babysitting Milo while Diana was working, she ran into Jeff. They became sexually involved and Lizzie to her surprise became pregnant. She was scared that she was not going to have a healthy baby given her history but was assured by her doctor that if she took the right steps throughout her pregnancy she would have a healthy baby. At first Lizzie is uneasy about the entire situation but later is able to see motherhood as a positive experience in her life. She describes how being a mother was going to keep her on track and ambitious.