Regretting You

On her 34th birthday, Morgan begins to contemplate destroying her kitchen door. For Morgan, the kitchen door represents her dissatisfaction with the stable life she has built with Chris. As part of the house they inherited from Chris’s parents, the door symbolizes the sacrifices Morgan made at 17 years old to provide her daughter Clara with the life of stability and attention she never received. At 34, Morgan realizes that her intense focus on her daughter will no longer satisfy her as Clara becomes more independent.

After one of many arguments with Clara, Morgan symbolically takes action against her dissatisfaction by destroying the kitchen door. She begins to “hit the door in the same spot, over and over, until the wood begins to chip” and feels pleasure (131). Morgan’s destruction of the kitchen door marks a transition for her. No longer complacent, Morgan begins to act on her desires and destroy the symbols of her past dissatisfaction. However, she is unable to remove the kitchen door completely on her own. She calls upon Jonah to come and help her remove the door from its hinges. Without question, Jonah aids Morgan on her quest, and together, they dismantle Morgan’s most-hated representation of her “predictable” life with Chris.