Summary

As her narration of her pregnancy continues, the author refers to her deepening, and paradoxical, thoughts around abortion, and to her growing knowledge that even in utero, her baby is developing a self, an individual identity - an “Argo” (94). She argues that the development of a child’s individual identity, and a woman’s identity as a mother, should not come at a cost, nor be identified solely as a mother filling a void in herself, but that pregnancy and motherhood can and should be a joy in and of itself. This leads her into another contemplation of language – specifically, how her own language can, and often is (in her own view) an apology for an opinion, and uncertainty about that opinion. She writes of editing out the apologies in her work, saying that by doing so, she edits herself “into a...