Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education

This section of the text explores the theme of The Challenges of Single Parenthood, preparing to highlight the difficulties of becoming pregnant with a second child. Stephanie’s pregnancy is partially a result of her inability to comfortably afford birth control, a problem that is unique to her socioeconomic status and that unfairly limits her freedom in comparison to her peers and classmates. As Stephanie dives into her studies, she cannot shake the feeling of impostor syndrome. Her classmates seem to have a greater bandwidth to devote to their studies because they are not bogged down by as many outside concerns or the considerable demands of parenting. Stephanie looks to bond with her professors since she is often closer in age to them than she is to her peers, and she assumes that she will become very close to Judy, who was also a single parent navigating academia. Judy expresses that babies do not belong in graduate school, which seems hypocritical on the surface since she had young children when she became student; however, one could infer that her academic career was made much more difficult because she was trying to juggle motherhood and school at the same time, and she does not want her students to have their attentions divided in the same limiting way that she did.

In this section, Stephanie’s lack of time and attention seems to be affecting Emilia. Emilia is often late to school and acts out at school. Stephanie’s class schedule means that she needs a constant stream of babysitters for Emilia. Stephanie notes that it is convenient to have a pool of college students at her disposal since many of her underaged friends will babysit in exchange for beer. However, this rotating roster of babysitters creates considerable instability for Emilia. As demonstrated by the early release day incident, Emilia possesses unusual resourcefulness for her age; this is another instance of “resilience” manifesting as a reflection of circumstances. Emilia becomes very attached to the caregiving figures that float in and out of her life, particularly to the potential father figures. She adores Seth, who seems to be babysitting solely for beer and the opportunity to mine material for his standup comedy, and goes so far as to ask Seth if he’ll be her new dad. Stephanie seems unbothered by her daughter’s attachment issues and seems to view Emilia’s adoration of Seth solely as confirmation that she chose a good babysitter.

In this section, the structure of the memoir becomes more erratic. There are several non-sequiturs and anecdotes that lack context or follow-through. The intentionality of this is unclear, but it can be inferred that these inclusions further represent the chaotic nature of Stephanie’s busy and stressful life. For instance, she mentions that Travis said he could buy Emilia a bike, but Travis and the bike are never mentioned again. Each of these threads that are introduced and never pulled through the memoir suggest that Stephanie is being pulled in multiple directions at all times as she attempts to navigate parenthood and her own aspirations amid impoverished circumstances.

While Stephanie’s struggles may elicit sympathy, her honest (but sometimes shortsighted) decision-making may also be alienating to the reader. This sense of alienation may lead the reader to question Stephanie’s declarations and reliability as a narrator (i.e., “my emotionally stunted child is amazing at articulating how much she appreciates me”; “every guy I sleep with tells me how great I am at sex”; “my presentations in class are so wonderful that everyone cries and applauds”). This sense of mistrust may be furthered by Stephanie’s hypocrisy as she descends on the bar scene and snidely critiques the college students, aligning herself with the real locals, even though she also only recently moved to Missoula. While it is ultimately up to the reader to interpret Stephanie’s character, Land’s vulnerable approach to storytelling in the face of inevitable criticism forces the reader to acknowledge the often unfair standards placed on single parents living below the poverty line—while Land doesn’t claim perfection, it is inferred that others are allowed to make her mistakes, while she is not.