The Speaker

Even as the speaker defends their sink from wasps, they admire the wasps' resilience. This shows the speaker's environmental awareness. However, the violent dynamic between the speaker and the wasps also pains the speaker. The speaker's capacity to view this interaction as both a dance and a battle demonstrates the speaker's nuanced perspective-taking. They step out of their own thoughts and feelings in order to understand the wasps' intentions. Through this speaker, Doshi suggests that empathy and cognitive flexibility are important for survival. These aspects may not solve the speaker's conflict with the wasps, but they foster a deeper understanding.

The Wasps

Before describing their own actions, the speaker hones in how the wasps must carry water droplets while ensuring they do not wet their wings. They do this for the survival of the group because they collect the water to "cool their nests" (3). They risk individual...