Again, Bui’s experience is emotionally alienating because the singularity and importance of her new son
to her contrasts with the routine and mechanistic way the nurse approaches relocating them. Similarly, while she is jarred by the new life in her arms, the other woman in her room seems to be perfectly fulfilling the social expectations of a new mother. In a sense, by consistently drawing out this contrast between “inside” and “outside” perspectives throughout this chapter, Bui foreshadows the rest of the book, recounting the personal stories and emotional upheavals that lie behind otherwise sterile, impersonal, “objective” narratives of history.