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تعداد صفحات: 14

Social Concerns

Loving In Loving (1980) the first significant man in Bettina's life is her father, a celebrated and egotistical author. Although Bettina's life appears to be all that is glamorous and desirable, it is in fact hollow and destructive, a perfect example of the seductive quality of fame and wealth. Bettina lives in a jeweled cage, pampered and protected, but also used, as her entire life is geared towards pleasing her father at the expense of her own personality.

Bettina's father dies, and she is comforted by her father's friend Ivo Stewart, and then unfolds another fantasy story in the Cinderella mode. This cultured and much older man offers Bettina a more generous love than her father did, but it is still paternalism.

Ivo allows her to explore her love of theater while maintaining the gilded cage of wealth and nurturing. For example, Bettina gets a job in an experimental theater but is picked up every night after the show by her husband's limousine.

The best thing Ivo does for Bettina is force her to leave him, again like a father who observes that the beloved young woman has grown up and is ready to fly the cage. Bettina precipitates this by falling into an affair with a very attractive actor, Anthony Pierce, but even before Bettina realizes it, Steel signals to the reader that this young man spouts the dangerous and egotistical charm of Bettina's father. So Bettina falls into the pattern of subjugating herself to the needs of others, as with Anthony, who dumps Bettina as fast as possible when she finds herself pregnant.

This appears to be the lowest point this still young heroine can experience.

She loses the child and attempts suicide, but in the hospital another romantic fantasy appears to be unfolding.

The handsome young doctor attending her reveals that he, too, is lonely and eager for someone to love, and Bettina finds herself ensconced in an urban gilded cage. John Fields is supportive of her emotional and physical needs, but tries to squeeze Bettina into the mold of wife and mother to which he ascribes. Bettina is forced to hide her play writing attempts, a clear sign of the destructive qualities of this superficially attractive relationship. But it is at the birth of her first child that the husband's true nature is revealed. All of the needs of the woman are ignored in pursuit of the perfect delivery from the obstetrician's point of view, and John, a doctor, sides with his medical colleague instead of his wife.

Bettina's growth as an individual is signaled by her ability to think through the faults of the situation and leave it of her own accord, as opposed to all of the previous relationships, which were ended by the man. She finds herself in New York, having received a rather implausible "lucky break" in finding a producer for her first play. She also meets one of the breed of new men, gentle, loving, and as giving to Bettina's needs as she had always been to men around her. In fact, he is willing to put his career as a successful theater critic in second place behind Bettina's growing success as a playwright.

This appears to be the perfect relationship, but Steel suggests otherwise.

There is no spark, no fire, no tension between two equally vivid and dynamic individuals. Bettina needs a man as powerful and successful and special as she is, a man like her father as she is now a woman like her father, and Steel contrives that she be free and ready to fall in love when this ideal mate appears in the final chapter of the book.

Loving is a compendium of traditional female fantasy relations, celebrated so often in romance, and Steel takes each one and shows how it is potentially a trap for a woman, particularly one who has not learned much about her own needs, her own personality. Yet the book is not anti-male.

There is never any suggestion that the entire system is geared by men to exploit women. Rather, women are responsible to learn about themselves, to grow up, and if need be, to experiment with relationships until they are capable of loving as fully and maturely as possible.

In this book, as in several others, Steel explores relationships which, traditionally, have been frowned upon.

In this case, Bettina is a much divorced woman, yet her experiences are shown in a sympathetic light, so that the reader understands how such things might come about, without either judging harshly or glorifying unduly.

Crossings Crossings (1982) is set during World War II, and although relationships between men and women remain Steel's dominant concern, the social and political realities of the period are also explored. Liane is happily married to her French husband Armand de Villers at the beginning of the novel, so that when she first meets Nick Burnham, unhappily married to the spoiled Hilary, she offers him sensitive sympathy only. Nick realizes that this is the sort of woman he considers ideal: a good mother, a loyal wife, and gently, purely beautiful as opposed to his own wife's flaunted sexuality. Nick's marriage is held together only by his concern for his son, but Liane's much stronger relationship is torn apart by external pressures. Armand is returned to France at the beginning of the war and then, at the fall of France, is forced to choose between his love of his wife and children and his love for his country. He chooses to send his family back to America and remain in Nazi-occupied France, apparently cooperating with the Germans but secretly assisting the underground. Liane, in turn, remains loyal to her husband despite the public knowledge of his collaboration and the cruel prejudice of her old friends. Even her family attempts to force her into a divorce, but she remains married to Armand. Besides the external pressure, there is a private conflict; Liane and Nick have met again, fallen in love, and now struggle to suppress their passion in loyalty to her husband and in hopes of saving his son from a messy divorce.

Steel presents a tortured love affair, where neither of the lovers is wicked, where both try to do the best they can, and yet where people are still hurt, where tragedy cannot be avoided. The novel suggests that actions should not be judged unless one knows all the facts; an apparent traitor may be a loyal citizen sacrificing all, and an errant wife may be caught between loyalty and passion and be simply trying to hurt the fewest number of people.

Changes Changes (1983) explores the problems of a working woman juggling children and a challenging career. Melanie Adams seems to have it all: a high-profile and high-paying job as anchor of a national news broadcast, and attractive and well-adjusted teen-age twin daughters. But at what price? She has not allowed herself to risk deep involvement with a man since the father of the twins walked out on her years before the story begins. When she does meet a special man, all sorts of questions are raised which she and her lover must answer.

Peter Hallman has an equally successful and glamorous career; he is a heart surgeon, and he, too, is leery of falling in love as he is still recovering from the death of his wife. But despite their uncertainty and a lengthy courtship, they finally must admit that they are in love. And now the trouble begins. Melanie and Peter