Agata In Atanas Sileika's Buying On Time

During several generations, the women had their role well-defined in their homes: cooking, laundering, cleaning, and taking care of the husband and the children. After many decades, this role started to change, and some women were raised to wish more from life than their mothers and grandmothers. This situation happens to the character Agata in Atanas Sileika's novel Buying on Time. She was born in a good family; however, during much time, she lives with her family in a basement, and her husband believes that her place is in the kitchen. By the second half of the book, she achieves her personal fulfillment in work outside the home.

Agata used to talk to her sons about the house where she lived before the war: "she would tell us of her life with her sisters in the white house where the servants cleaned the rooms and served dinner." (page. 25). This passage shows that the Mother used to live in a comfortable place, and she neither had to cook nor to clean. However, since the war, Agata and her family have lived in a DP camp, in a rented wooden shack, and in the basement. Furthermore, she has to take care of her sons, her husband, and the house. Due to all these changes, she starts to show signs of

He buys a very expensive fur coat as a gift for Agata. When she receives it, she becomes angry and starts to shout: "I'll take it back, and I'll get an apology out of her as well for dealing with the simple-minded." (page. 35). After this incident, she returns to her normal activities and starts to work outside the home. At the beginning, the Old Man disapprove this idea: "If you go out to work, the children will become gangsters from hanging around in front of drugstores. We'll never eat properly again in our lives, and we'll become thin and waste away." (page. 58). However, after he sees the benefits of Agata's job, the Old Man starts to incentive her to look for better