The price of freedom in Bach and Joan's Children goes down in history It has been suggested that "woman's quest for emancipation modern literature in contemporary Australian literature has proven to have been a failure."2 I believe that this suggestion is not valid. Not because this statement is true or false, but because the concept of women's emancipation is so heavy at the start. To emancipate oneself is to “free oneself from all constraints, in particular from the inhibitions of tradition”3 If it is obviously true that the emancipation of women from certain traditions and constraints would be beneficial, so much so. individually as well as for society as a whole, completely stepping outside the confines of society can be read not only as freedom, but also as exclusion. If women manage to be excluded from society, should this be considered as a. success or failure? In my opinion, it is not exclusion but equitable integration that is the path to true emancipation of women. However, the idea of ​​integration also implies the idea of ​​compromise, and how can freedom achieved through compromise be considered a complete success or a complete failure? The question of what constitutes successful emancipation for women has been explored in two contemporary Australian studies. novels: Bach for Children4 and Joan Makes History. In this essay, I will explore the contradictions and confusions discovered through Athena and Joan's searches for personal freedom, as well as the mix of failure and success in the freedom they ultimately find when they return “at home”. Children's Bach “If I hadn't been a feminist, I probably wouldn't have become a writer,”5 says Garner, emphasizing the importance of feminism in her own quest for identity and freedom. Her definition of feminism is “a simple matter of being intelligently pro-women and the freedom of women to develop as decent human beings”6. And although she considers marriage "an institution that was not created with the well-being of women in mind"7, she also recognizes in people "a powerful need...to marry"8. It stands to reason, then, that in her fiction she would explore the possibilities of the marriage tradition with a view to finding the means by which it would enable women to become “decent human beings.” With these attitudes, it becomes clear that there is nothing incongruous about Garner's heroine, Athena, seeking freedom and finding a version of it in her own marital home..