Against occupancy: Martha Quest's multiple forms of resistance in Doris Lessing's "Children of Violence"

From the onset of the Children of Violence series, Martha Quest is mobile; she wanders from home, meanders among racially and politically charged landscapes, sneaks into town, and visits friends' homes---despite the absence of parental consent. Her earliest mission becomes defiance against her parents and resistance against conventional notions of womanhood. Interested in establishing a new identity, Martha quests for freedom. Her relationships, professions, residences, and female biology threaten to "occupy" her; and in the series, she fights against many "isms"---racism, sexism, agism and classism. I maintain that she resists these various forms of "occupancy" in order to radically reshape herself in liberating terms. Ultimately, I contend that she transcends restrictive roles and creates a progressive model of intersubjective female identity.