The Stone Diaries

In 1965, at 59, Daisy falls into a deep depression that she describes as a "sinking of spirit" stemming from "some mysterious suffering core which those around her can only register and weigh and speculate about" (230). The rest of the chapter offers each character's theory of why Daisy is so depressed.

Alice believes her mother is depressed because of the loss of her job. Alice ties a person's identity, especially a woman's, with her career, and she posits that because the self is so malleable, a change in career changes the spirit. During her first holiday back home from college, Alice fixed a crack in her bedroom ceiling because she wanted to create a kind of change in her environment. It is also revealed in Alice's monologue that Barker died of a malignant brain tumor.

Fraidy's theory is that Daisy lacks a sex life. Fraidy reveals she has had 54 lovers and keeps an account of each one in a diary. Unlike Alice, whom she criticizes heavily, Fraidy believes work is simply work and not tied to who you are. Instead, Fraidy believes the self, especially a woman’s, is defined by a good sex life. She tries to talk to Daisy about sex like they used to when they were younger, but she finds the subject too sensitive.