“Mina found her tasks to do that kept her off her feet”
Ruth remembers, “She ( her mother) muttered, stuffing us into our snowsuits and boots, that it didn’t matter if she had to cross a blizzard to do it, but God forbid Ms. Mina had to spread the peanut butter on her own sandwich bread. In fact the only time I remember Mama taking time off work was twenty-five years later, when she had a double hip replacement, generously paid for by the Hallowells. She stayed home for a week, and even after that, when it didn’t quite heal right and she insisted on returning to work, Mina found her tasks to do that kept her off her feet.”
First, it is ironic that Mina cannot ‘ spread peanut butter on her own sandwich bread” which is something straightforward that would not necessitate a domestic worker. However, this ironic propensity renders Mina a petty employer who exploits her worker outstandingly. Second, Mina ensures that Ruth’s mother is on her feet at all times notwithstanding that she has been through a ‘hip replacement’ produce which would demand rest. Mina is insensitive to Ruth’s mother’s health. Besides, her reluctance to let her break can be construed to be a payback of the money that they incurred on her procedure for a humane and sensitive employer would not unnecessarily overstrain a worker who has not yet recuperated from surgery.
“The Most Beautiful Baby”
Ruth asserts, “The most beautiful baby I ever saw was born without a face. From the neck down, he was perfect: ten fingers, ten toes, chubby belly. But where his ear should have been, there was a twist of lips and a single tooth. Instead of a face there was a swirling eddy of skin with no features.” It is ironic for Ruth to regard a faceless baby as ‘the most beautiful.’ Based on the imagery that she describes the baby is anomalous; hence, would shudder any viewer. Ruth’s ironic affirmation of the baby’s beautifulness conjectures that beauty rises above the frivolity that standard faces embody. Although most bystanders would regard the baby unpleasant, Ruth looks at the exceptional beauty which extricates the baby from other humans.
Ultrasound
Ruth explicates, “His mother—my patient—was a thirty-year-old gravida 1 para 1 who had received prenatal care including an ultrasound, but the baby had been positioned in a way that the facial deformity hadn’t been visible. The spine, the heart, the organs had all looked fine, so no one was expecting this. Maybe for that very reason, she chose to deliver at Mercy–West Haven, our little cottage hospital, and not Yale–New Haven, which is better equipped for emergencies. She came in full term, and labored for sixteen hours before she delivered. The doctor lifted the baby, and there was nothing but silence.” The ultrasound does not ascertain the deformity before the baby’s delivery. Accordingly, the ultrasound deceives the parents reading the welfare of their baby by failing to uncover the deformity. The ironic results infer that the ultrasounds are not categorically flawless processes. The certainty of the deformity shrinks the worth of the ultrasound.
