The man’s ignorance towards the girl as a whole is highlighted for the reader when he describes what he thinks the operation is like. “It’s really an awfully simple operation…I know you wouldn’t mind it…it’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.” However, there are more issues at hand here than the physical pain the woman is to undertake for the abortion. It is unfortunate for the woman that the man fails to see that there is far more psychological pain for her to go through. It is, after all, a baby she is requested not to have. It is unknown what the previous plans for this baby might have been. Maybe the couple was looking forward to it-- to the new sense of responsibility and to the new bond forming between them. The girl is most likely very devastated to have the operation and all the man talks to her about is things to keep her mind off it. He buys her drinks to enhance her thinking and not have her believe that he is very selfish in the whole matter. The conversation between the couple, we suggests proof that the woman is conscious of the realistic; she doesn’t really believe all the man tells her. He tries to convince her that the world will be there after the operation but she isn’t willing to go as far as believing that kind of fairytale, one of the many the man tells her to have her lose the baby.
The woman, on the other hand, is eager to please the man and careful not to irritate him with her troubles. She comforts him, which is one thing about this short story which is terribly wrong, instead of him comforting her. She tells him that everything will be ok, and she will do it so that he will be happy. However, in that way she tells him “I hope you realize what you are putting me through, and that this is all for you and to please what you want.”.
The man gives her reasons why this baby should not be brought to the world. “ That’s (the baby) the only thing that’s bothering us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy. We’ll be fine after. Just like we were before.” Little does he realize, he is the reason for the couple’s distress. The woman, Jig, is going through such a crisis because her husband is forcing her to do something she is, in a way, striving against.
