The White Linen Nurse

"The White Linen Nurse" by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott is a story set in the early 1900s about Rae Malgregor, a nursing student close to finishing school, who is trying to find herself and what she wants in life while dealing with what others expect from her. The book looks at what it meant to be a woman back then and how women were supposed to act, especially those working as nurses. At the start, Rae is thinking about how tiring and restrictive her nursing training can be, showing how hard it is to be seen as "noble" all the time when she just wants to be herself, flaws and all. She talks to her friends, Zillah and Helene, about her worries about love and what she wants to do with her life, feeling pressured by society. The first part of the book shows Rae as someone easy to relate to, as she struggles with doing what she's supposed to do and following her own heart, getting ready for a story about her finding out who she really is.