The chap­ter delves into the com­plex life of G, an artist whose ear­ly wild years in the city con­trast sharply with her lat­er con­ven­tion­al exis­tence as a suc­cess­ful painter, wife, and moth­er. G’s stu­dio in a grit­ty neigh­bor­hood sym­bol­izes her rebel­lious past, where she lived in chaot­ic free­dom, dis­con­nect­ed from her dis­ap­prov­ing par­ents. Her art ini­tial­ly served as a raw, unfil­tered expres­sion of her inner tur­moil, but as she gains recog­ni­tion, her work evolves into more pol­ished, somber pieces. This shift mir­rors her per­son­al trans­for­ma­tion, as she enters a bour­geois mar­riage with a lawyer who cri­tiques her art and life with moral dis­dain. G’s rela­tion­ship with her hus­band is marked by a pow­er dynam­ic where his author­i­ty and dis­ap­proval echo her par­ents’, draw­ing her into a cycle of sub­mis­sion and self-doubt.

A sig­nif­i­cant theme is G’s explo­ration of shame through her art, par­tic­u­lar­ly in a series of auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal paint­ings that con­front her bod­i­ly and sex­u­al expe­ri­ences. These works, ini­tial­ly grotesque and porno­graph­ic, even­tu­al­ly become a means of lib­er­a­tion, allow­ing her to exter­nal­ize and dis­solve her shame. Her gal­lerist, an ugly yet kind man, plays a piv­otal role in legit­imiz­ing her work, help­ing her reframe her “unac­cept­abil­i­ty” as artis­tic strength. How­ev­er, her mar­riage intro­duces new ten­sions, as her husband’s crit­i­cism sev­ers her con­nec­tion to her gal­lerist and iso­lates her from her artis­tic peers. G’s preg­nan­cy and moth­er­hood fur­ther com­pli­cate her iden­ti­ty, as she grap­ples with the soci­etal expec­ta­tions of fem­i­nin­i­ty and the vis­cer­al bond with her daugh­ter, which becomes both a source of rev­e­la­tion and con­flict.

The nar­ra­tive also shifts to Mann’s farm, a decay­ing yet myth­ic place where time seems sus­pend­ed. The farm, once a utopi­an com­mu­ni­ty, now reflects neglect and failed ide­al­ism, with Mann entan­gled in local pol­i­tics while his wife main­tains order amidst chaos. The descrip­tions of the landscape—wild, untamed, and watched by an omi­nous mountain—mirror G’s inter­nal strug­gles. The farm’s dis­ar­ray par­al­lels G’s stu­dio in her wild years, sug­gest­ing a broad­er com­men­tary on cre­ativ­i­ty and con­trol. Johann, a Ger­man teacher liv­ing on the farm, recounts its his­to­ry, empha­siz­ing Mann’s futile bat­tle against moder­ni­ty and his wife’s qui­et resilience. The farm becomes a metaphor for lost dreams and the ten­sion between preser­va­tion and decay.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in G’s frac­tured fam­i­ly life, where her hus­band usurps her role as a moth­er, leav­ing her alien­at­ed from her daugh­ter. The kitchen becomes a stage for their per­for­ma­tive domes­tic­i­ty, with G increas­ing­ly side­lined. Her art, once a refuge, now reflects her emo­tion­al exile, as she chan­nels rage and com­pe­tence into her work. The final scenes at Mann’s farm—with its eerie, observed landscapes—echo G’s sense of being scru­ti­nized and judged, both by soci­ety and her own con­science. The chap­ter weaves togeth­er G’s artis­tic jour­ney and the farm’s decline, illus­trat­ing how per­son­al and cre­ative auton­o­my are erod­ed by exter­nal expec­ta­tions and the weight of his­to­ry.