Abstract The paper analyzes the literary themes in the short story "What I saw from Where I Stood" by Marisa Silver - a story written from a man's perspective on the stillbirth of his baby. The author then compares it with another story, "A Sorrowful Woman" by Gail Godwin. By comparing the two, the paper shows the unique literary techniques of "What I Saw from Where I Stood".
From the Paper "The final mention of the stillborn describes the scene most emotionally, ?When the doctors took the baby out of her, they handed him to me without bothering to clean him up; I guess there was no point to it. Every inch of him was perfectly formed. For a second, I thought he would open his eyes and be a baby.? First of all, this scene itself is highly emotional. The sadness of it is emphasized by the way the baby is described as being taken out of her. This is in contrast to what we would expect of a baby being born. The part where he says he thought he would open his eyes and be a baby, also emphasizes that this is not a baby. This shows us effectively how the moment they were looking forward to became something else."
