What is the role of the main character’s wife in the story?

Sara, the wife of Thomas Walters, plays an essential role in my book, Feel the Spin, as she both supports her husband’s aspirations and makes him aware that women, too, have unfulfilled dreams. The reader may well appreciate how limited were the choices in most women’s lives during this period (the years after the American Civil War and Reconstruction).

I had a difficult time writing this character sympathetically yet realistically. Sara Walters must have a powerful personality and a disciplined character, so that she may exert a substantial force on the direction of the narrative while remaining within the boundaries of certain societal constraints. An avid reader, she is acquainted with newspaper accounts of women who advocate for their own emancipation—for the vote and other rights. One of the threads of the story is Sara’s attempt to integrate her progressive ideas with devotion to her children and her husband.

Although Sara had experiences of childhood and family vastly different from those of Thomas, they were bonded from the outset of their courtship by similar tastes and ideals. Most importantly for their union as well as for the arc of the story, Sara shares with Thomas a secular perspective that favors science and rationality over traditional theology and superstition in addressing the problems of life. How and where can they find community as freethinkers and truth seekers?