Emily Chang

Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020

Little Fires Everywhere​, Class, and the Medal of Motherhood

The intertwining relationships in ​Little Fires Everywhere ​by Celeste Ng weave together

an enchanting tale of motherhood, what it means to be a woman, and the complexities and social

pressures of raising a child. Every female character in ​Little Fires Everywhere ​faces their own

unique battle within the theme of motherhood and what it’s like to begin to take on the

responsibilities of what society deems it to be. Primarily, however, the journeys and relationships

between Mrs. Richardson, Mia, Lexie, Bebe, and the McCulloughs illustrate the most about how

different definitions of what it means to be a mother conflict, contrast, and reveal more about

society. Furthermore, not only is motherhood a question of differing opinions but it is also a lens

into how class affects the fundamental idea of being a mother. Mrs. Richardson, Lexie, and the

McCulloughs illustrate one side of the coin (being of higher economic status and class) while

Mia and Bebe make up the other side. The parallels drawn between the two sides of the same

coin lead to how Ng paints a picture of society through her novel. In ​Little Fires Everywhere, ​Ng

represents motherhood as a product of class, which affects how women view the role of

motherhood in their lives and how society then influences the way women begin to take on this

role.

When discussing class, the novel does not shy away from acknowledging the very

different lives the women lead in all aspects of their lives. Motherhood is illuminated in this

novel as if the burdens, responsibilities, and duties of being a mother are a sort of medal that can

be worn with pride - earned through hard work and calculated decisions. However, in order to

wear the medal in the first place, one must embody class and come from a life of privilege. Ng
 Emily Chang
Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020
first represents the ‘medal’ aspect of motherhood through Mrs. Richardson, whose complex

characteristics, attitudes, and worldviews showcase a version of what it means to be a mother

that is prideful, calculated, and set. She wears her medal with confidence, secure in the idea that

she chose motherhood - she achieved it - and she’s doing it the right way. Set in her ways, when

she had her children, “[she] had secretly been proud of how fertile her body had proved, how

resilient” (Ng 108). To her, society deemed a successful, high status woman as one who could

continue her family line and carry on with a smile, a big house, and a steady life. The medal is

something worn so that it could be complimented, and recognized as an achievement. Through

Mrs. Richardson, Ng highlights the societal notion that the end goal for women is to become a

mother, and any deviation from the ‘conventional’ path is cause for severe judgement, despite

any possible alternative reason or choice. It is important to note how Ng ties class into this

notion. Those of high class can find an easy path to achieving this so-called societal goal,

whereas those of lesser status have a more difficult time finding this path. Mrs. Richardson feels

a certain pride when she achieves a status of motherhood because it proves her class in this

world. A specific example of this pride is Mrs. Richardson’s view of Mia and the way her life

has played out. To Mrs. Richardson, the idea of earning the medal of motherhood is skewed

when it comes to Mia. Mrs. Richardson turns up her nose at Mia for obtaining her medal of

motherhood the way she did, paralleling how society has set a definition of what it means to truly

be a mother. How can someone such as Mia be fit for a mother when, in Mrs. Richardson’s eyes,

she has no plans, no resources, and no knowledge on how to truly raise a child? Mrs. Richardson

is only proud to wear her medal because of how it dictates her class. But Ng uncovers the real
 Emily Chang
Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020
theme behind wearing the medal of motherhood with pride when Moody comments on Mia’s

relationship with Pearl. After learning Lexie was actually the one who had an abortion, Moody

still condemns Mia, saying, “Well, maybe she should have kept a closer eye on her daughter.

Maybe she should have raised her to be more responsible” (Ng 319). His short and blunt remark

points to the center of Ng’s statement on motherhood. To be a woman and to be a mother is to

have society’s demanding, sky-high, and oftentimes unrealistic standards thrust upon one’s

shoulders, having deemed what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong.’ But the problems don’t just arise

when a mother has given birth or raised her children. Ng illustrates how society’s demands

infiltrate the minds of young women from the very beginning.

Lexie’s story highlights how women are pressured by the high standards of class and

society to conform to what a ‘normal’ mother looks like. The ‘normal’ mother has a partner, has

the resources to support their child, and does everything to help them make a better life. But

Lexie can’t check all those boxes. Instead of seeking out the medal of motherhood, it is placed

upon her, without her planning it, without her even necessarily wishing for it. When Lexie finds

out she is pregnant, another layer of motherhood is brought into the picture - the

more-often-than-not condemnation of those who end up in situations like Lexie. Ng uses Lexie’s

story to highlight the relationship between Mrs. Richardson’s medal-wearing, high class life that

she’s enforced on her children as well and Lexie’s new situation, in which she does, for a second,

wonder about what would happen if she went through with the pregnancy and broke her

mother’s idea of a perfect life. Mrs. Richardson enforces the societal structure that those who are

lucky enough to be born into high class must make no mistakes, especially when it comes to
 Emily Chang
Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020
taking on the role of a mother. But Lexie attempts to envision her life as a young mother, asking

herself, “something she was going to have anyway, so why not now?” (Ng 174). Ng paints a very

clear picture of what it must be like for a young woman to suddenly find herself wearing a medal

she never asked for. What’s in her way? Ng illustrates how Lexie’s fear and worry stems from

her mother, who, in her set lifestyle, has only ingrained society’s one definition of what it means

to be a mother. To be a teenager, to have unprotected sex, and to get pregnant could not be more

looked down upon by a high class society, and Ng causes readers to examine how women in that

position must actually feel, when they discover that the world is against them, and that they are

on their own. After Lexie goes through with an abortion, she finds it easier to put herself in

Bebe’s shoes, and when her mother talks about how pregnancy is not something to take lightly

and that it’s something you have to be ready for, Lexies wonders, “So one mistake, and that’s it?

I’m not ready to have a baby. But if I-If I got pregnant, you’d make me give it up, too?” (Ng

267) Her inquiry is truthful and valid, and yet the thought never crossed Mrs. Richardson’s mind,

that her child might have a different life story than hers, and that Lexie’s path might be filled

with more rocks and turns than the perfect life she’d planned. Lexie tried to test the water with

her mother and got the response that society puts on women who find themselves wearing the

medal of motherhood when they did not ask for it. Susan Faludi begins to explore the idea of

how society impacts women, and how it seeks to control them. She claims that “once a society

projects its fears onto a female form, it can try to cordon off those fears by controlling women -

pushing them to conform to comfortingly nostalgic norms and shrinking them in the cultural

imagination to a manageable size” (Faludi 70). Her ideas about society’s influence directly
 Emily Chang
Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020
support Ng’s writing, where the standard ideal of a woman getting pregnant after she has been

married and has the resources to care for a child is what society boxes women into. For someone

to go outside this is to disrupt society and the perfect class structure. But in ​Little Fires

Everywhere, ​Mia proves to be someone who breaks from this structure, and illustrates how class

and society doesn’t have to always dictate how a woman sees herself as a mother. Mia treats

Lexie with respect and even love when she comes back from the abortion, and proves to be a

warm presence in Lexie’s life. During this difficult time, she finally sees someone who doesn’t

immediately judge her and demean her for getting pregnant in the first place. Through this

relationship, Ng illustrates the other side of the coin - how a person without a high class was able

to see through society’s skewed view of motherhood and relate to true woman in Lexie, who

never asked for this pressure in the first place.

On the subject of the stigma against women who become pregnant without necessarily

planning it, Ng points to the last side of the medal of motherhood - where those who have less

class are ruled by the structures set in place by those of higher class. Society declares that those

of a higher status and class have the right to determine who should or should not wear the medal,

and can take the medal away when the bearer is deemed unfit. The complicated and almost

rhetorical situation of the McCulloughs and Bebe illustrates the image of what a ‘mother’ looks

like, and what she must be able to provide for her child. From Mrs. Richardson’s perspective,

Bebe “walked away from her responsibilities as a mother” (Ng 297). But Ng raises the thought -

what are the responsibilities of a mother? If it is to do what is best for the child, no matter what,

then did Bebe really disregard all responsibilities of motherhood when she did what was best for
 Emily Chang
Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020
the child and left her? Perhaps there is an interesting contrast drawn between Mrs. Richardson

and the McCulloughs, who believe that since they would never do such a thing how could

anyone else do it, and Bebe, who finds herself at a crossroads in which she would do anything

for her child. Forming the most complex aspect of this situation that Ng presents is the class

division, in which those of higher class are presiding over a case in which they know they can do

everything materialistically to sustain a child and yet this child has another mother. Mia and

Bebe, who find themselves with less resources and less to back themselves up, are dealing with

the threat that the medal of motherhood can be tossed around, taken away, and presented onto

someone else with a bang of a gold encrusted gavel. But Ng illustrates how Mia sees past society

and instead realizes that motherhood is not about who wears the shinier medal, but instead who

has earned it. She comforts Bebe, when she ultimately loses, saying, “She will always be your

child...You will always be her mother. Nothing will ever change that” (Ng 296). They bond

together of the fact that a woman who finds herself wearing the medal of motherhood and

accepts it, takes on the burdens of it, and endures it will always have something to fight for. This

concept of women bonding together to fight for the same cause is reflected in Audre Lorde’s ​I

​ orde discusses the idea that instead of oppressing women who are unlike
am your sister. L

themselves, they must look beyond their differences to find the real fight. She speaks candidly to

the reader, saying, “it is necessary for you to stop oppressing me through false judgement. I do

not want you to ignore my identity, nor do I want you to make it an insurmountable barrier

between our sharing of strengths” (Lorde 292). Mia and Bebe are fighting the class system, in

which they must deal with high society’s eye on how they fulfill their role as mothers. While
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Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020
their stories are different, unique, and equally as important, they bond through class, status, and

femininity.

​ g draws the reader’s attention to how class and society has

In ​Little Fires Everywhere, N

influenced the perception of what it means to be a mother and how one can claim or reclaim their

right to motherhood. Through a metaphor such as the donning of a medal, motherhood is

represented as something that will never have a strict definition, but is instead something that can

be worn with pride, taken away by those who believe they have the right to make such a claim,

and placed on a woman, forcing her to make many difficult decisions. Being a mother is not

simple, easy, or set, as Ng proves in her novel. The stories of Mrs. Robinson, Mia, Lexie, Pearl,

Bebe, and the McCulloughs reflect class, and how it has shoved burdens, stigmas, and

judgements upon one of the strongest and most resilient things a woman can choose to become.
 Emily Chang
Gender Studies
Paper #1
3 March 2020

Works Cited

Faludi, Susan. ​Backlash the Undeclared War against American Women​. New York: Three

Rivers, 2006. Print.

Lorde, Audre. ​I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing across Sexualities​. New York,

NY: Kitchen Table, Women of Color, 1985. Print.

Ng, Celeste. ​Little Fires Everywhere.​ S.l.: Penguin, 2017. Print.