(Mother)Monsterhood: The Reclaiming of Female Identity in Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Motherhood can be an alienating experience for all, especially when social media veils the unaesthetic facets of caring for the young, turning it into an idealized version of parenthood which gives the illusion that it should be easy, and if it is not—the fault is your own. Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder presents this isolating existence through its main character, the mother—whose name is absent from the narrative, narrowing the scope of her identity to that of a caregiver—who attempts to navigate motherhood surrounded by mothers living seemingly perfect scenarios of motherhood. It is only when she starts turning into a dog, or the “nightbitch,” as she calls it, that she begins to question her identity and what she is missing. The present paper aims to analyze the process of the main character of Nightbitch in her attempt to reclaim her identity, a process triggered by her body and later embraced by her in her quest to reclaim her life and identity, as well as to strengthen the bond with her child.