With text evidence
At the center of both the primary and secondary stories, the framed and frame narratives, is a woman unsatisfied by her domestic role and yearning to transcend expectations of those around them and the limitations placed on them by their dependents. Sal likens her story to the fireplace that John uncovers from underneath the drywall in their farmhouse, and Phoebe's story to the drywall he chips away. Through Phoebe's story, Sal is able to better comprehend her own.
Sal's story is the story of her mother leaving Bybanks; over the course of the novel, she reflects on why her mother left and what reasons she may have had for leaving. When Sal hears Norma Winterbottom ask her daughter, Prudence, if Prudence thought she, Norma, lives "a tiny life" (88), Sal understands this question as a clear indication that Norma is unsatisfied with "Mrs. Supreme Housewife," as Sal describes her at the beginning of the novel. Sal's first impression of the Winterbottoms is that Mr. Winterbottom is an office worker, and "Mrs. Winterbottom baked and cleaned and did laundry and grocery shopping." She says, "I had a funny feeling that Mrs. Winterbottom did not actually like all this baking and cleaning and laundry and shopping" (30), which, of course, turns out to be true.
