Jacob then makes himself known to the entire family and begins making the arrangements for a dowry, and the marriage of the first of the sisters. .
After each of the sisters becomes married to Jacob they each spend a sacred seven post-marital days during which the bride and groom explore each other emotionally and sexually. After every sister has been married an ongoing battle for the dominant female position in the household begins. The most effective way of winning a "head wife" position was to give birth to the most male children, providing the man with the valuable addition of a healthy son that will inherit the blessings of his father. "Like any sisters who live together and share a husband, my mother and aunties spun a sticky web of loyalties and grudges," Diamant writes in the voice of Dinah.
Towards the end of the section, Ms. Diamant begins to round out her characters and the women begin to settle into their roles in the family. For example Leah, the most successful birth mother, decides to conclude her painful childbearing years, and Rachel, an unsuccessful mother, finds a calling in midwifery as well as successfully completing one birth.
SECTION 2.
.
The second section of the novel is titled "My Story", the format shifts from the narrator's recollection of stories passed down through the generations, to the telling of the events she encounters first hand. This section contains many years of the narrator's life as she grows to become a woman, and shed her first blood.
As the story begins to shift from the daughters of Laban, to Dinah, the intricate dynamics of the children in the family are more thoroughly addressed. Dinah relates well with Joseph and becomes his milk-sister, and based on their knack for story telling the two young children find themselves the leaders of the younger portion of Jacob's children. .
Not far into the second section the family embarks on a journey to visit the birthplace of Jacob, where the rest of his family still live.