Babies

The babies at the Omaha Public Library symbolize entrapment. While unlicensed women are allowed to rent out the infants as a means of easing their emotional sorrow, contact with the babies only emphasizes the women's bitterness and powerlessness. After the infants turn three, they are then taken by the Federated States and given to labs or other agencies. Their lives, therefore, are predetermined by the government. The system imprisons them, like the other characters in the story, to a life not of their own choosing.

The Library

The Omaha Public Library symbolizes fate. While the library does offer unlicensed women work opportunities or the chance to borrow babies, its operations only succeed in reminding the women of what they cannot have. Sidra takes care of the babies because she is not allowed to do anything else, and as a form of self-preservation. Women like Hadley must...