The woman undergoes an episiotomy and begins to bleed profusely, creating a connection between birth and blood. “I heard the scissors come close to the woman's skin like tissue and blood began to flow – bright, fierce red. And then all of a sudden, the baby seemed to come out…” (66). Although Esther is not extremely put off by this bloody scene, she seems to draw 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 that she had been in pain and that when she cursed and moaned, she she really didn’t know what she was doing because she was in a sort of twilight sleep” (66). This event is also significant because it represents the lack of empathy that traditional (patriarchal) values ​​have with the female experience. Later in this same chapter, Buddy exposes himself to Esther and she expresses feelings of depression, asking him about his virginity immediately afterward. He reveals that he has slept with a woman several times and Esther believes that he is a hypocrite. This entire chapter marks a turning point in Esther's view on traditional femininity and her position in gender.