Unnamed woman - "The Dialectic"

"The Dialectic" is a brief scene taking place on a beach in Sopot, a resort town on the Baltic Sea, centered around a mother vacationing with her children. The reader is given little background on this character, nor much personal information at all beyond the details of her family situation. The father of her children left her to emigrate to America and she feels angry about his absence. Beyond that, all the reader is told is that she "would like to be on good terms with all animals" (1), perhaps an unconscious yearning to be free from the bitterness that she feels about being abandoned. At the end of the story, she imagines a violent scene in a chicken slaughterhouse, making it clear that this desire for inner peace will not be coming to pass anytime soon.

Monica - "Sentimental Education"

Monica is the protagonist...