Elements of Fiction in Danielle Steel’s Mixed Blessings :: Danielle Steel Mixed Blessings Essays

Elements of Fiction in Danielle Steel’s Mixed Blessings Danielle Steel, in her work of fiction, Mixed Blessings, has effectively used plot, setting, and theme as she weaves a powerful tale of three couples who face decisions about having children that will test, in unexpected ways, the ties that bind them as lovers, partners, and friends. Steel has used these elements to emphasize that there are people who have such a great need and love for children. In Mixed Blessings, she represents women radically and optimistically as shown by Diana Goode, Barbie Mason, and Pilar Graham, unlike the negative representation of womanhood in the movie version of her other novel, The Ring, where Kassandra feels that taking her own life would save her children and her husband from the shame of her unfaithfulness. First, there is a major plot structure in Mixed Blessings, the plot of complications. Right from the beginning, Steel portrays the female characters in terms of their dreams, careers, and their curiosity about having a family. For instance, Diana is the middle child amongst three sisters; her goal is to classically strive to be better, smarter, and more successful. She feels that she has to achieve something more than her sisters have done. Gayle, Diana’s older sister has a dream of attending medical school, but she happily succumbs to marriage temptation. In fact, in Steel’s own words Gayle’s situation is described as: Her oldest sister, Gayle, had been set on going to medical school until she met her husband in her first year of premed, married him that June, and instantly got pregnant. . . . Gayle never looked back at a career in medicine once. She was happily married, and satisfied to stay home with her girls and keep busy with them and her husband. She was the perfect doctor’s wife, intelligent, informed, and completely understanding about his hours as an obstetrician. (6) As the plot progresses, Diana has her own complications from the Intrauterine Device (IUD) she has been using for the past eighteen years. The IUD delayed her from having a child immediately after her marriage. Another aspect of plot that Steel has used in this novel is the reversal of fortune, where Diana, the young elegant looking woman, who knows where she is going and what she wants out of life, ends up being frustrated about inability to have a child.