Summary

“The Birthday,” the first story of the collection, takes place in New York City, and is told in the past tense by a third-person limited narrator, focalized through the young protagonist of the story, Cecily Carey. On the eve of her birthday, Cecily suddenly realizes that many of her neighbors and mostly all inhabitants of New York neither know nor care that her birthday is the next day. “That was the most frightening thing she had ever known” (2). She calls for her mother, who comforts her by telling her that “‘God owns the world, dearest’” (3). After Cecily calms down, she goes to sleep.

The next morning, Cecily awakens to learn that her mother has been sent to the hospital with her father accompanying her. She is left alone in the house with...