About the Title

This book is called “The Push” in English. The translator rendered it as “I Should Never Have Become a Mother” (我本不该成为母亲), which I think is somewhat biased. Although this sentence appears in the text itself, it’s not as profound and concise as the original English title. Moreover, “The Push” is actually a core suspenseful element of the entire book - did the little girl Violet really push her baby brother’s stroller into the middle of the road, causing the tragedy?

The Identity of Motherhood

When a woman is still in her mother’s womb, there are already eggs in her own womb - meaning mother and daughter are nurtured in the same womb. The book uses this sentence as its epigraph, actually highlighting a problem - women do not voluntarily acquire the identity of motherhood. Not all girls must become mothers to make their lives complete. Binding women’s value to the identity of motherhood is a desecration and slaughter of women’s inherent meaning.

Marriage

The book mentions almost everything encountered in marriage: the sweetness of first love, the trivialities after marriage, and the husband’s affair, making one sigh: “Such is Life.”

A Flaw

I don’t really understand why the author wrote about that antisocial child. As one Douban review said, marriage itself is already cruel enough, and the origin of this child’s personality seems untraceable and rather abrupt.