Where's the baby?
Could someone tell me how Mildred's baby died?
shareMildred mentions to Philip that her baby "... died last summer".
shareIt was probably supposed to be pneumonia, which a lot of babies died of. Well, there were tons of things to kill babies in those days. Especially poor babies.
By the way, Mildred herself actually dies of syphilis. They just censored it.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish."-Bette Davis
The novel doesn't provide any explanation of the death cause either
shareShe might have contracted the syphillis before the baby's birth and perhaps that was the cause of its death. Also, during this historical time, sometimes bebies were left on church doorsteps and died before anyone found them. Or were just left somewhere and forgotten. Sometimes today you hear about women having babies and leaving them in trash dumpsters, etc. It happened in the 30s too. I would have a far easier time believing this than that Mildred did her level best to take care of the child and the child died.
shareWell, that wouldn't be the case here. Phillip actually hired a woman to take care of the baby. Which raises the question of why he was still paying after the baby died!
share[deleted]
What shocks me (unless I misheard it) is how Phillip says he's "glad" that the baby died.
shareYeah that shocked me too, I asked that question and he was glad it died because my that time Mildred had become a prostitute and he didn't want the kid growing up in that environment. It was a harsh thing to say though.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines