Previous
Clara Bates
Joe Bates is Clara’s husband and the father of her children. Joe and Clara met when he was a graduate student and she was an undergrad. Joe’s tender “worship” of Clara impressed Marian, who has always liked Joe. After Clara’s three pregnancies, none of which are planned, Joe struggles to take care of various household duties as Clara sinks into what might be considered postpartum depression. Joe believes that Clara is unhappy because “her feminine role and her core are really in opposition,” perhaps the most direct articulation in the novel of some second-wave feminist critiques (even though Joe inadvertently enforces many of the normative expectations he criticizes).
Joe Bates Quotes in The Edible Woman
The The Edible Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Joe Bates or refer to Joe Bates. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
The babies had been unplanned: Clara greeted her first pregnancy with astonishment that such a thing could happen to her, and her second with dismay; now, during her third, she had subsided into a grim but inert fatalism. Her metaphors for her children included barnacles encrusting a ship and limpets clinging to a rock.
[…] [Clara’s] own body seemed somehow beyond her, going its own way without reference to any direction of hers. I studied the pattern of bright flowers on the maternity smock she was wearing; the stylized petals and tendrils moved with her breathing, as though they were coming alive.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27
Quotes
“I worry about her a lot, you know,” Joe continued. “I think it's a lot harder for her than for most other women; I think it's harder for any woman who's been to university. She gets the idea she has a mind, her professors pay attention to what she has to say, they treat her like a thinking human being; when she gets married, her core gets invaded…”
“Her what?” Marian asked.
“Her core. At the center of her personality, the thing she's built up; her image of herself, if you like.”
“Oh. Yes,” said Marian.
“Her feminine role and her core are really in opposition, her feminine role demands passivity from her…”
Marian had a fleeting vision of a large globular pastry, decorated with whipped cream and maraschino cherries, floating suspended in the air above Joe's head.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Edible Woman LitChart as a printable PDF.
Joe Bates Quotes in The Edible Woman
The The Edible Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Joe Bates or refer to Joe Bates. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
The babies had been unplanned: Clara greeted her first pregnancy with astonishment that such a thing could happen to her, and her second with dismay; now, during her third, she had subsided into a grim but inert fatalism. Her metaphors for her children included barnacles encrusting a ship and limpets clinging to a rock.
[…] [Clara’s] own body seemed somehow beyond her, going its own way without reference to any direction of hers. I studied the pattern of bright flowers on the maternity smock she was wearing; the stylized petals and tendrils moved with her breathing, as though they were coming alive.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27
Quotes
“I worry about her a lot, you know,” Joe continued. “I think it's a lot harder for her than for most other women; I think it's harder for any woman who's been to university. She gets the idea she has a mind, her professors pay attention to what she has to say, they treat her like a thinking human being; when she gets married, her core gets invaded…”
“Her what?” Marian asked.
“Her core. At the center of her personality, the thing she's built up; her image of herself, if you like.”
“Oh. Yes,” said Marian.
“Her feminine role and her core are really in opposition, her feminine role demands passivity from her…”
Marian had a fleeting vision of a large globular pastry, decorated with whipped cream and maraschino cherries, floating suspended in the air above Joe's head.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
