Mildred Pierce

“What he couldn't face was the stultification of his sagacity. He had become so used to crediting himself with vast acumen that he could not bring himself to admit that his success was all luck, due to the location of his land rather than to his own personal qualities. So he still thought in terms of the vast deeds he would do when things got better.”

Bert Pierce, who made a small fortune by dividing up land he inherited and building homes on it during the economic boom of the 1920s, believed himself to be a real estate baron and tycoon, when in fact he just fell into wealth. Once his business dries up during the Depression, he can’t bring himself to change his mental picture, taking comfort from “vast deeds” that he has no way of accomplishing. The Depression costs Bert his money, position, and prestige, but his self-delusions keep him trapped until he can admit that he has made mistakes.

“He's got the same character they've all got, no better and no worse. But—if you bought his dinner, and cooked it for him the way only you can cook, and you just happened to look cute in that little apron, and something just happened to happen, then it's Nature.”

Lucy Gessler gives advice to Mildred before her first date after Bert leaves her. Lucy describes dating as a financial transaction, encouraging Mildred to put Wally in debt by providing a meal for him; Lucy implies that a sexual encounter would make his indebtedness that much greater. Lucy has an extremely low opinion of men, advocating for a battle of the sexes approach to relationships.

“It was her first experience with the sexological advertiser, though she was to find out he was fairly common. Usually he was some phony calling himself a writer, an agent, or a talent scout, who found out that for a dollar and a half's worth of newspaper space he could have a daylong procession of girls at his door, all desperate for work, all willing to do almost anything to get it.”

While she is struggling to find work, Mildred goes on a sketchy job interview with a man who only wants to proposition her for sex. She discovers that men preying on desperate women are quite common—and, arguably, she will later fall for a different kind of predator in Monty.