We laid them down gently, in ditches and furrows and wicker baskets beneath the trees.
-- Women (Narration) (N/A paragraph 1)

Importance: This quotation is the story's opening line of narration. It refers to the women working in the fields and placing the children on the ground nearby so that the women can supervise them. This image begins to narratively develop the idea of the immense burdens that the women shoulder in order to create both economic stability and personal security for their children.

Usually, our husbands had nothing to do with [the children]. They never changed a single diaper. They never washed a dirty dish. They never touched a broom. In the evening, no matter how tired we were when we came in from the fields, they sat down and read the paper while we cooked dinner for the children and stayed up until late washing and mending piles of clothes.
-- Women (Narration) (N/A paragraph 4)

Importance: These lines of narration point...