Libertie changes her mind and decides she does not ever want to become a doctor. Why?

After such a clear passion for medicine and for following her mother's path, Libertie changes her mind and decides she does not ever want to become a doctor. Why?

Libertie failed as a student. She felt she did not have the aptitude to be a doctor. She did not possess that piece of flint that existed in her mother’s soul. Her anatomy was different. She was not built to alleviate the suffering of others.

I think Libertie starts her training as a doctor against her own instincts. It is her mother’s dream for her to be a doctor, not Libertie’s dream for herself. She allows herself to become distracted from her studies and jumps into a hasty marriage to escape the trap of living up to her mother’s expectations. She doesn’t change her mind about being a doctor. Rather,she makes up her mind not to be one.

It just was never her dream, she was always trying to live up to her mother's expectations of her. She even doubted her mother thought she was valuable. Because of her own feeling of be incumbency she jeopardized her own education by becoming involved with the music as a distraction and not trying hard enough in her classes. Her heart was not into doctoring.

It was never Libertie's dream to be a doctor. It was forced upon her because her mother wanted it. She did not have the desire or determination to carry through with her studies. It is sad that she was never encouraged to truly find "who" she actually was.

I wonder if Libertie really becomes a doctor sometime in the future, that perhaps she was just being rebellious against her mother.

Early on in the book, Libertie says "It was clear as Ben Daisy's hat, floating on the waters. I would not be a doctor, no matter what Mama wished. I could not deceive others, and I would not deceive myself, as she did."

Cassandraw quotes the relevant passage above. Libertie saw Cathy as fundamentally dishonest, promising patients she could make them well when she could not guarantee outcomes. Libertie was not willing to take the responsibility of making what she saw as that guarantee.

She watched her Mother deceive others by promising a cure and decided then she could not do that. She went ahead with school because her Mother wanted it, but her heart was not in it.

Liberties never had the passion for medicine that her mother did. I don’t think she felt the “mystery” of healing that her mother did.

I don't think it was Liberties dream to be a doctor at all, but her mother's. Libertie was just trying to gain her mothers love and acceptance, but in the end, she just couldn't go through with it.

Libertie did not have the strength of spirit to pursue medicine. She seemed to always want to take the easy way out. Being a woman doctor at that time required complete sacrifice.

I agree with the others who stated that it was never Liberties dream or passion to become a doctor. She was studying that field just to please her mother. If it was her passion, she might have done great in school.

I think from the start Libertie showed us she had a nurturing heart like when she took Bens hand after he arrived and when she helped her mother write out compliments for the women's group to help win back her mothers support from them. She also was nurturing of the Grace’s themselves and their career. She had a nurturing heart that was stifled when her mother put her to task away from the patients and then off to school where sh was isolated. I think she becomes disillusioned about medical school then and starts to understand she wants a close relationship with her mother and that medicine is her mothers dream from for her not necessarily what she wants to do. I think Emmanuel was a step toward choosing her iwn destiny and an easy way to get out of her mothers strict expectations. She often reflects what freedom is and At the end of the story it felt she came full circle by choosing what she wanted to do and feeling excited about the future and having her own family to raise and nurture.