The women’s death punctuates trauma with tragedy. Since no words can fully capture the physical pain, sense of objectification and powerlessness, and loss of dignity and autonomy that the women have just suffered, putting
any words to it would simply mean watering down their experiences for the men. Indeed, the emotional labor of putting their experience into words—which first requires fully acknowledging and making sense of it—is also an unrealistic feat for the traumatized women. The doctor’s wife makes it clear that the least the men can do is respect the women’s need for silence to recuperate—and to pick up some of the burden by retrieving the food. The first blind man’s refusal to help suggests not only that he is lazy and selfish, but also that he remains incapable of empathizing with the others or viewing himself as part of a collective.