Night of Existence

In the darkness of her room, a woman becomes certain she is pregnant. The realization is not one of joy, but of existential terror—a bullet of awareness that throws her into a well of fear. She is not afraid of pain, God, or others, but of the responsibility and consequence of bringing a new being into the world. She questions whether it is right to impose life on another, knowing the world's suffering, and wonders if nothingness is preferable to existence. The narrative voice is intimate, confessional, and immediately sets the tone for a book that is both a letter and a philosophical inquiry.

The Dilemma of Birth

The woman's internal debate intensifies as she contemplates the morality of birth. She recalls her own mother's ambivalence and the moment she, as a fetus, signaled her will to live. The woman weighs suffering against nothingness, ultimately feeling that existence, with all its pain, is preferable to oblivion. Yet, she is acutely aware that this is her reasoning, not the child's, and struggles with the arrogance of making such a choice for another.

Inheritance of Doubt

The woman reflects on the lineage of women before her, each forced to make the same choice without ever being asked. She recognizes the courage required to bring life into the world, likening it to a seed breaking through soil. Yet, she is also aware of the contradictions in her logic, the ease with which certainty can flip to doubt, and the loneliness of her decision, especially in the absence of the child's father.

The Arrogance of Life

The woman decides to continue the pregnancy, moved by the image of a three-week-old embryo. She draws parallels between the accidental origins of the universe and the accidental nature of conception, questioning whether anyone—God or otherwise—ever considered the consequences. She accepts the responsibility, not out of egoism, but as a continuation of the human story, even as she acknowledges the possibility of changing her mind.

Woman Alone, World Against

The woman seeks medical confirmation and is met with skepticism and coldness from the male doctor. She experiences the alienation of being an unmarried pregnant woman, facing judgment from the chemist, tailor, and her boss. The world, she realizes, is not kind to women who step outside prescribed roles, and her pregnancy becomes a source of both internal and external conflict.

Gendered Expectations

The woman contemplates the future of her child, hoping for a daughter who will embrace the challenge of womanhood, or a son who will be spared certain humiliations but face other forms of servitude. She rejects the binary of gendered behavior, insisting that what matters is being a person, and warns her child against cowardice and the false promises of freedom.

The Tyranny of Love

The woman's relationship with the child's father is strained and ultimately severed by his insistence on abortion. She reflects on the nature of love, suspecting it is a hoax designed to enslave, yet admits to a deep hunger for it. She wonders if the love between mother and child is the only true form, and whether her child will teach her its meaning.

Society's Judgment

The woman's pregnancy is scrutinized by all: the medical establishment, her employer, and even her friend, who has had multiple abortions. She is caught between competing narratives—biological, religious, and social—about when life begins and who has the right to decide. The pressure mounts as she is forced into bed rest, her autonomy further eroded by the demands of her body and the expectations of others.

The Egg and the World

The woman marvels at the rapid development of the fetus, yet is haunted by the knowledge that the child is utterly dependent on her. She reflects on the illusion of freedom, both in the womb and in the world, and the inevitability of servitude—to parents, to society, to work. She tells her child that equality and happiness exist only in the womb; outside, injustice and violence are the norm.

Fairy Tales and Violence

The woman recounts three formative fairy tales from her own childhood: the magnolia tree and the violence against women, the injustice of chocolate denied to the poor, and the false promise of a better tomorrow. Each story is a lesson in the brutality, inequality, and disappointment that await in the world, and she questions whether it is right to bring a child into such a place.

Injustice and Chocolate

Through the story of chocolate, the woman exposes the deep divides between rich and poor, and the humiliation of want. She tells her child that no system or ideology has ever erased this injustice, and that the only true equality exists before birth. The lesson is clear: the world is not fair, and the child must be prepared to face this reality.

Tomorrow's False Promise

The woman's faith in a better future is shattered by war, betrayal, and the persistence of suffering. She realizes that "tomorrow" is often a lie, used to placate and control. As her pregnancy progresses, her initial certainty gives way to doubt, and she wonders if it is right to bring a child into a world where tomorrow is always just out of reach.

The Pact Unravels

Medical complications and emotional turmoil lead the woman to question her ability and desire to continue the pregnancy. She feels persecuted by the demands of the fetus, and ultimately decides to prioritize her own life and autonomy. The pact she made with her child—to bring it into the world—dissolves under the weight of her own needs and the pressures of society.

The Hospital and the Trial

After a miscarriage, the woman imagines herself on trial, judged by doctors, her friend, her boss, her parents, and the child's father. Each delivers a verdict—guilty or not guilty—based on their own values and experiences. The trial becomes a metaphor for the impossible moral calculus of motherhood, autonomy, and responsibility.

The Child's Verdict

In a dream or vision, the child addresses the mother, acknowledging that she killed him without killing him, and that her doubts and fears ultimately led him to choose not to be born. The child forgives her, but insists that he will never return; each life is unique and unrepeatable. The mother is left with the weight of absence and the knowledge that her choices have irrevocable consequences.

The Weight of Absence

The woman lingers in a state of mourning, unable to let go of the dead fetus. She questions the meaning of her suffering and the purpose of a life that ends before it begins. She recognizes that every truth contains its opposite, and that the only real judge is oneself. The process of healing is slow, and the scars may never fully disappear.

The Wolves Call

The woman's friend and the child's father urge her to move on, to rejoin the world of the living. She acknowledges the necessity of survival, the call of life that is stronger than grief. She prepares to have the fetus removed, determined to reclaim her autonomy and continue her journey, even as she mourns what was lost.

Life Beyond Loss

In the aftermath, the woman confronts the reality of her loss: the child was never more than an egg, a possibility. She is both humbled and angered by the experience, but ultimately chooses life. She recognizes that existence is a series of beginnings and endings, and that life continues, indifferent to individual tragedies. The book closes with a sense of hard-won acceptance and the affirmation that, despite everything, life does not die.

Characters

The Narrator (Mother)

The unnamed protagonist is a modern, educated woman who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. Her journey is one of relentless self-examination, as she grapples with the existential, ethical, and social implications of motherhood. She is fiercely independent, skeptical of societal norms, and determined to make her own choices, yet she is also deeply vulnerable, haunted by doubt, and longing for connection. Her relationship with the unborn child is both intimate and adversarial, a dialogue that reveals her deepest fears and desires. Over the course of the novel, she moves from fear and ambivalence to acceptance and grief, ultimately choosing life for herself, even as she mourns the life that was lost.

The Unborn Child

The child is both a physical reality and a projection of the mother's hopes, fears, and philosophical inquiries. Voiceless for most of the narrative, the child becomes a vessel for the mother's internal debate about existence, autonomy, and responsibility. In a climactic vision, the child speaks, offering forgiveness but also a final, irrevocable absence. The child's "voice" is a synthesis of the mother's own conscience and the unknowable otherness of a life never lived.

The Child's Father

The father is a peripheral yet pivotal figure, representing both the societal expectation of male authority and the reality of male detachment from pregnancy. He initially urges abortion, then returns in a moment of weakness, seeking connection and absolution. His inability to share the physical and emotional burdens of pregnancy underscores the gendered asymmetry at the heart of the novel. He is both a source of pain and, in the end, a fellow sufferer.

The Mother's Friend

A married woman who has had multiple abortions, the friend serves as a foil to the narrator, embodying a more pragmatic, less philosophical approach to motherhood and reproductive choice. She is both supportive and critical, her own experiences shaping her advice and her anxieties. Her presence highlights the diversity of women's experiences and the impossibility of a single "right" answer.

The Mother's Parents

The narrator's parents represent the older generation, initially shocked by their daughter's pregnancy but ultimately supportive. Their acceptance is a source of comfort, and their presence in the imagined trial underscores the enduring bonds of family, even in the face of profound disagreement and loss.

The Male Doctor

The primary medical figure is cold, clinical, and ultimately condemning. He represents the authority of science and the law, but also the limitations and biases of a male-dominated medical establishment. His role in the imagined trial is that of prosecutor, accusing the narrator of murder and failing in her duties as a woman and mother.

The Female Doctor

In contrast to her male colleague, the female doctor is supportive and understanding, advocating for the narrator's right to make her own choices. She challenges the cult of life and the double standards applied to women, offering a more nuanced and compassionate perspective on the complexities of pregnancy and loss.

The Boss

The narrator's employer is concerned primarily with the impact of her pregnancy on her work and the company's reputation. He embodies the pressures faced by working women and the ways in which economic and social structures constrain personal freedom.

Society

Though not a single character, society is a constant presence in the novel, manifesting through the reactions of strangers, colleagues, and institutions. It is the source of much of the narrator's anxiety and alienation, enforcing norms and punishing deviation.

The Jury (in the Trial)

In the narrator's imagined trial, the jury is composed of all the significant figures in her life, each representing a different perspective on her actions. Their conflicting verdicts reflect the impossibility of a single, objective truth, and the ultimate necessity of self-judgment and self-forgiveness.

Plot Devices

Epistolary Monologue

The entire novel is structured as a letter from the mother to her unborn child, creating an immediate sense of intimacy and urgency. This device allows for a fluid blending of narrative, reflection, and philosophical inquiry, and positions the reader as both confidant and witness.

Internal Dialogue and Imagined Conversations

The narrator's internal debates and imagined conversations with the child, the father, and others serve to externalize her psychological struggles. The climactic trial scene is a particularly powerful example, dramatizing the competing voices within her own conscience.

Symbolism

The novel is rich in symbolic imagery: the egg as both womb and world, the magnolia as beauty and violence, chocolate as injustice, and moon dust as the unattainable. These symbols deepen the narrative's exploration of existence, loss, and longing.

Foreshadowing and Circularity

The narrator's persistent questioning and ambivalence foreshadow the eventual miscarriage. The narrative is circular, returning repeatedly to themes of existence, nothingness, and the impossibility of certainty.

Social Critique

The novel employs the personal to critique the political, exposing the ways in which women's bodies and choices are policed by family, medicine, work, and society at large.

Analysis

Oriana Fallaci's Letter to a Child Never Born is a searing meditation on the existential, ethical, and social dimensions of motherhood. Through the intimate, confessional voice of its narrator, the novel interrogates the meaning of life, the burden of choice, and the impossibility of certainty in a world rife with suffering and injustice. It is both a feminist manifesto and a universal human inquiry, exposing the ways in which women's autonomy is constrained by societal expectations, gendered power structures, and the biological realities of reproduction. The book's enduring power lies in its refusal to offer easy answers: every truth contains its opposite, every choice its regret. In the end, Fallaci affirms the persistence of life, not as a triumph over death or doubt, but as an ongoing, imperfect act of courage and hope. The novel's lessons are as relevant today as ever: that autonomy is hard-won, that suffering is inseparable from existence, and that the search for meaning is both the burden and the privilege of being alive.

Last updated: May 11, 2025