Mimi lies to her husband, telling him she works at a hospital. She doesn’t admit the truth until she’s in serious trouble. What did you think of her decision here? Do you believe she made the right decision under the circumstances? When would you have told Stan, if you’d been in Mimi’s shoes?
No. If I had been in Mimi’s shoes, I wouldn’t have told my husband I was working in an illegal abortion clinic. He was being so selfish because he knew he wasn’t going to be able to go back to playing professional baseball. He was “poor, pitiful, me.” Even though Mimi took the job to support ;her family, he wasn’t supportive. Having her disaproving mother-in-law living with them didn’t help.
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I believe it was okay not to tell Stan the truth. He most likely would have made her quit. They needed the money to survive and he certainly was not helping with that.
I definitely agree with @Anna_Robinson and @Paula_Walters answers.
Mimi was putting her family first and risking her safety.
Given her husband was not supportive of Mimi’s efforts to keep the family afloat and was pretty much incommunicado, I think Mimi was absolutely justified in not revealing what kind of work she was doing.
I am in the midst of reading this book, and I have just reached the part where the police show up at the clinic where Mimi is working. I do not think Mimi is wrong in not telling her husband Stan where she is working. Stan does not like the idea of Mimi working, nor is he willing to talk to her realistically about the dire financial situation they are in with Stan not working at all. He most likely would have insisted that Mimi quit her job even though it was necessary for her to continue to work.
In the beginning Mimi took the job out of desparation. I dont even think Stan would have rallied himself to oppose it as he was so mired in self-pity.
I think Mimi thought she had no choice. She had the burden of supporting the whole household because Stan was just sitting around feeling sorry for himself (yes, I know he was depressed) and not seeking any help to get himself together. Women made far less than men (still do in many professions), she had been out of the job market for a decade, and work was scarce for those with recent experience. Working at the clinic was the best job she could find that would enable her to keep the family home and feed her children, but she knew how the Catholic church viewed abortion (still does) and that Stan & his mother would judge her if they knew where she was working. Stan would assuredly demand that she quit, and where would that leave them? On a breadline and homeless.
I wouldn’t be in Mimi’s shoes. I would have left Stan to fend for himself. I wouldn’t support a man who just sat around ignoring his responsibilities and making no effort to help feed his children. But again, it was 1939 and she was married to a Catholic who didn’t believe in divorce & would have had the law in his favor. Leaving Stan would have met losing her children, in addition to everything else.
Mimi was well and truly trapped.
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I so agree, Stan was a wimp, pure and simply. She did what she had to do. She feed them and kept them from losing the house, the car, etc. He would not have been able to do so.
Mimi absolutely made the right decision by not telling Stan. Look how he treated her once she did tell him.
I don’t think Mimi had a lot of choices. She needed to find a job to support her family, and she was not able to find other jobs. This was 1939 and women had so few options. She was lucky to have found work. While I generally believe in telling a partner about big decisions/actions, Stan was not able to comprehend the need for her to get a job. He was depressed and only thinking of himself, not his family.
So, yep Mimi did what she needed to do and thank goodness she did. She took action and saved her family.
I agree that she shouldn’t have told Stan. He would not have supported her in this job. She was thinking of her family when taking it, so they could have food on the table.
I wish that Mimi had attempted to tell Stan earlier even though it would not have been easy for her. Stan was definitely in a dark depression; however, he might have listened and “stepped up to the plate”. The outcome of the story could have been entirely different if this conversation had occurred.
Mimi had to be the strong one n the family since Stan wasn’t stepping up to the plate (pun intended). He would never have allowed her any independence.
Mimi’s survival instincts were in full force. She had to work, period, even though her work was very risky. Stan would not have been supportive. The family’s future would have been dire if Stan learned the nature of her work and “forced” her to quit.
I felt that Mimi’s decision to hide the truth from her husband was understandable and, given the circumstances, justified. She was in an incredibly difficult position—trying to support her family financially while her husband was emotionally unavailable, unsupportive, and unwilling to face their reality. I felt that if she had told him, he likely would have forced her to quit, even though her income was essential to keeping the family afloat. Considering the limited options available to women at the time, along with the social and religious pressures she faced, it seemed that Mimi had very little choice. While honesty in a relationship is important, in this case her decision felt like an act of survival and responsibility rather than deception.
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I agree with the majority here that Mimi was justified in not telling Stan what she was doing. He was too tied up in his own self pity that he would probably have been very angry with her and she was doing what she needed to do to save her family. I don’t think he was being fair to her and really left her no choice but to do what she had to do.
Mimi did what was necessary to keep them afloat. Stan wasn’t capable at the time of doing anything to better their situation. He was spoiled and weak, Mimi proved herself strong.
Like many others who have replied to this question; it almost seems like the only thing Mimi could do was keeping the truth from her husband. She had to work, he was in a pitiful state, and the Mother in Law was absolutely no support for her. Maybe in different times she could have been more forceful with Stan and said “ you either pull yourself together and get a job, or this is what I need to do to put food on the table.” Times were very different back then for women and she really did not have that luxury.
What was Mimi to do? They came and repossessed the refrigerator, what would be next? The Car, the house. She had to do something. She tried hospital nursing but it didn’t work out. She was out of that practice setting for too long. When this opportunity came along she had no other choice. Although she did struggle with it morally and religiously…she had to do it. Stan was so deep into his self pity that I doubted he was that depressed. His behavior made me angry…angry enough that I wanted to scream at him. However, Mimi had to do what she did and telling Stan was not an option. And don’t get me started on his mother!!