The woman undergoes an episiotomy and begins to bleed profusely, thus creating the connection between birth and blood. “I felt the scissors close on the woman's skin like a cloth and the blood began to flow, a fierce and brilliant red. Then suddenly the baby seemed to jump out…” (66). Although Esther is not extremely put off by this gory scene, she seems to trace the relationship between birth and transformation with blood and pain. The woman in labor is more or less ignored by her male doctors, and Buddy even goes so far as to say that "the woman was taking a drug that would make her forget she had any pain and that when she cursed and moaned she didn't really know what she was doing because she was in a kind of twilight sleep” (66). This event is also significant because it represents the lack of empathy that traditional (patriarchal) values ​​have for the female experience. Later in this same chapter, Buddy exposes himself to Esther and her expresses the feeling of depression, immediately asking him about his virginity. He reveals that he has slept with a woman several times and Esther feels that he is a hypocrite. The entire chapter is a turning point for Esther's view on femininity traditional and its position in the genre