I loved this insight and wondered myself so I revisited it and my take is that MacIntosh hates Franklin because she tried living by his ideas about the world (practicality, education, thrifty, hard-working) and found them to be a lie. Her full backstory is very sad. It didn't work for her and it certainly wasn't written at a time when it was supposed to be applied to women. It feels like MacIntosh is representing all the things we're told you need to do/believe/think in order to live a proper life are lies. I don't know what you're supposed to find as a foundation (in the novel I have a feeling it's nature) in life but it isn't to be found in these things we're taught or at least be skeptical there is a recipe.
I loved this insight and wondered myself so I revisited it and my take is that MacIntosh hates Franklin because she tried living by his ideas about the world (practicality, education, thrifty, hard-working) and found them to be a lie. Her full backstory is very sad. It didn't work for her and it certainly wasn't written at a time when it was supposed to be applied to women. It feels like MacIntosh is representing all the things we're told you need to do/believe/think in order to live a proper life are lies. I don't know what you're supposed to find as a foundation (in the novel I have a feeling it's nature) in life but it isn't to be found in these things we're taught or at least be skeptical there is a recipe.