Shame

Throughout the novel, the author uses the father's response to his wife's abortion in order to inspire his explorations regarding the controlling nature of guilt and shame. Although the father and mother choose to abort their baby because of inconclusive tests, the father remains haunted by their decision for years afterwards. In "Chance," when the wife gives her husband permission to write about the experience, he tells her: "It's too shameful . . . Too shameful to be this unlucky" (12). He not only regrets the decision, but is embarrassed by its social, political, and personal implications. In the paragraph following the aforementioned conversation, the narrator says that "He stared at the white of the walls. Ashamed, and ashamed of his own shame" (12). The image of the white walls symbolizes the purity the father does not feel. Instead, his mind and heart are clouded by thick shame and remorse.

Even...