《Pieces of a Woman》 - Women's fragment and struggle

Many people say this film is about pain, about forgiveness, about pregnancy. Maybe. But I think a more important theme throughout the film is women's struggle. The so-called "struggle" is not only the struggle of a person suffering from disaster to survive (just like a person falling into the water splashing in the water), but also an active struggle - Martha is fighting for power all the time.

She argued with her husband about the spelling of the child's name, who said it was just a "tiny detail.". Martha is very angry, because for her, it's not a tiny detail, it's power: the right to speak, the right to decide, the right to control her body, the right to interpret her life. Those things, to her, or to a woman, are extremely important (but unfortunately they need to be fought for, not born with). For the same reason, she and her mother argued about how to deal with the child's body (donation or burial), whether to fight a lawsuit, whether she would testify in court, and how to have a child (at home or in hospital).

It's strange (actually, it's not strange): she only wants to control some seemingly insignificant "small details". It seems that those rights should belong to her, but it's so difficult to obtain them and it needs so many fights. People always say, "we fully understand that you have the right to do it, but...". People recognize her power, but continue to tell her "what you should do" and "what's best for you" without scruple. The mother said, "if you do as I suggested, you will hold the living child now." "all you have to do is lift your head, just like I used to do.". When making love, she told her husband that the zipper of her pants was at the back, but her husband had to tear her pants. She said that she would give me a few seconds to take them off by myself. Her husband was furious and said that her behavior had made him lose interest. Really, it's unbelievable that a woman's life needs so many struggles, even the right to take off her pants. Passers-by (mother's friend) who can't make it even dare to jump out of the supermarket to define her life. A very symbolic scene is that she goes back to work after having a baby and finds a man sitting in her office using her computer. She said that this is my office, the other side of a "Oh, OK, OK, you don't get excited" look. She had to ask, "do I look scary, please?" It's really typical: no one denies that it's her office (right), but it doesn't prevent other people from taking it for granted.
Everything needs to struggle, so her life is so difficult, not all because of the death of the child, the death of the child is just an event triggering conflict. So everything became a struggle. Even the struggle itself is a kind of power struggle (mother insists that Martha must fight and go to court; but Martha resists and opposes this kind of struggle, and her resistance is her struggle). We can even guess that she chose this poor and uneducated spouse to fight with her mother for control of her life. From mother's paying for a car to mother's writing a check to persuade a man to go away, the power war continues.

Martha has a strong fighting spirit. She is portrayed as a rebellious middle and high class woman. But she also has her weakness, which is vaguely described as a kind of woman's unique weakness: for example, when her husband pours on her, she is in a state of consent. For example, the pain and helplessness when she saw the children on the street - her husband also suffered for the loss of the children, but his pain manifested in yelling at the doctor, threatening the car seller, and so on; it was the pain of naturally having power and strength, which was different from Martha's. Her weakness seems to exist because she has a woman's body (or identity). Her struggle is not always successful. There are a lot of "half push", which is the same as sex. It is "I don't want to, but I still enter the state of consent", which seems to be a kind of "woman" concession. For example, she was very opposed to a lawsuit and appearing in court at the beginning, but later she appeared in court to testify. But she also surprised everyone and made a speech in court to forgive the midwife. Her struggles also seem to be "feminine": she appeals to emotion and love, saying that my daughter does not exist for fighting and revenge.

Women exist not for fighting and revenge, but for love. Martha herself seems to believe that.
But: in the way that people think it's very "woman" to fight for success, is it a success or a failure?
There are two interesting details at the end of the film.
The first is that the mother seems to show a tendency to Alzheimer's disease. She can't remember what she ordered. Mother said: I didn't order that. Martha said: you ordered. You like lemon poppy. Mother said: I don't like it. At this time, mother showed obvious hesitation and fear, while Martha had never been so mature and firm. Their power relationship finally reversed. It used to be Martha who said "I like this / I'm going to do it" and mother who said "no, which one do you like / you're going to do it". Now it's changed. But this change is not because Martha has achieved some essential success, but just because her mother is old and sick, and Martha is mature. The power relationship itself has not changed. It is still the same "I don't want you to feel, I want me to feel".

The second detail is that Martha asked her daughter to come down from the tree to eat. Martha said, "I made your favorite food." The daughter said, "is it a popsicle?" "No "Popcorn?" "No And so on. What daughter likes most has to be decided by her mother, but has the final say. The power relationship has not changed at all, except that Martha is now a mother, not a daughter.

The old bridge was broken (because of resonance and inherent defects), but the new one was built. The apple seeds on the table turned old brown, but the seeds in the refrigerator germinated and grew into apple trees. But, if you think about it, the new bridge may also break because of resonance, and the new Apple may still turn brown.
This ending confuses me. As if everything had changed, and as if nothing had changed, it was just generation after generation.

But maybe we should believe that we will make progress, and eventually we will build earthquake resistant bridges and antioxidant apples. At least from the micro point of view, in Martha's personal story, she creates a connection in the struggle, heals the injury, and finds her own position. She completed her fight against her mother through a declaration in court. Admitting that one's choice is not reasonable or optimal is also a fight for power.

It's not the old-fashioned "time heals everything," because Martha didn't survive by waiting quietly. She was always fighting and struggling. Those fragments of the struggle, put together a maybe not complete she.