Heidi’s Feminist Journey: Identity and Self-Discovery in Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21928/juhd.v11n3y2025.pp19-26Keywords:
Feminism, Identity, The Heidi Chronicles, Simone De Beauvoir, IndividualityAbstract
This paper is an extract from an MA thesis, which is entitled “‘Still We Rise’: A Feminist Study of Female Character’s Quest for Identity in Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig, and Isn’t It Romantic”. It examines The Heidi Chronicles (1988) from a feminist perspective, depending on Simone De Beauvoir’s notions in her foundational work The Second Sex (1949). This study shows the impact of the second wave of feminism on the changing roles of women in the nineteen-sixties. This study answers the questions: What challenges are set before Heidi’s way that prevents her from ascertaining her independence? How does Heidi violate the old notion of femininity? This paper explores the protagonist Heidi Holland’s journey of self-discovery and her pursuit of subjectivity, arguing that she faces numerous professional and personal challenges in a male-dominated society as she strives to assert her identity and prove her selfhood. The analysis concludes with Heidi’s resistance to patriarchal cultural norms, which obstruct her life path and hinder her quest for independence.
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