A Conversation from the Third Floor

This story is about a woman who's husband is imprisoned and being transferred to another prison facility. She has brought one of their young children with her despite the hotness of the day and has also brought cigarettes to her husband. What struck me about this story was the desperation that this woman must have been feeling despite her "cool" attitude. Her husband is imprisoned, she is left to care for any children they have, and also she is responsible for bringing her husband any items that he may require while he is locked up. I felt her isolation as the writer described the "hot sun" and how the woman sat up against the prison wall and fed her child in a small patch of shade. She was completely ignored by the prison guards for the duration of her visit with her husband (which consisted of her standing outside the prison walls and yelling back and forth) as if she did not exist. Furthermore, towards the end of the story, the shadow of one of the prison guards reaches the woman's foot and she quickly withdraws it from reach. This action was very indicative, I thought, of the way that this women must have felt her place in society was. Almost as if she had been beaten down to the point of withdrawing from any type of interaction with these men, from even allowing their shadows to touch.