Aimee Bender uses Steven’s lips as a symbol of the changes he exhibits when he comes home from war. Mary’s focus on his physical attributes rather than their emotional relationship together exposes the dramatic changes that warfare can impose on a person and their relationships. When Steven returns from war Mary notices one thing, his lips are missing. “Steven returned from the war without lips…I expected lips. Dead or alive, but with lips,” (Bender 21). Immediately Bender exposes Mary’s apparent infatuation with Steven’s missing lips; these lips, however, symbolize something bigger, a more overarching change in Steven. Mary’s focus on this physical aspect of Steven that seems to be missing exposes her overall focus on the physical aspect
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When Steven returns with no lips Bender makes the physical encounters between Mary and Steven very awkward and peculiar. “That night in bed, he grazed the disc over her raised nipples like a UFO and the plastic was cool on her skin,” (Bender 22). Mary describes their intimate encounter comparing Steven’s mouth to a “UFO,” and “plastic,” using unusual words. This description shows how the changes in Steven change Mary’s perception and experience of their seemingly explicitly physical relationship. Bender never uses emotional words like love around Mary and Steven’s relationship, which shows how their bond isn’t emotional but physical. The changes Steven endures and Mary’s emphasis on his missing lips, concurrent with their use as a symbol, depicts the missing piece in their relationship that drives Mary to seek other, more complete men. The title of the story correlates to Bender’s use of Steven’s lips as a symbol. She utilizes the physical body part of Steven to symbolize the thing he left while fighting in the ditch in the war. When he returns, all Mary can focus on is the physical differences that make Steven abnormal, or incomplete. As Mary ventures back to the market she notices that the young cashier, likely untouched by the danger of warfare, has lips, and is therefore more complete than Steven physically. The fact that the cashier has such full and apparent lips is
When Steven returns with no lips Bender makes the physical encounters between Mary and Steven very awkward and peculiar. “That night in bed, he grazed the disc over her raised nipples like a UFO and the plastic was cool on her skin,” (Bender 22). Mary describes their intimate encounter comparing Steven’s mouth to a “UFO,” and “plastic,” using unusual words. This description shows how the changes in Steven change Mary’s perception and experience of their seemingly explicitly physical relationship. Bender never uses emotional words like love around Mary and Steven’s relationship, which shows how their bond isn’t emotional but physical. The changes Steven endures and Mary’s emphasis on his missing lips, concurrent with their use as a symbol, depicts the missing piece in their relationship that drives Mary to seek other, more complete men. The title of the story correlates to Bender’s use of Steven’s lips as a symbol. She utilizes the physical body part of Steven to symbolize the thing he left while fighting in the ditch in the war. When he returns, all Mary can focus on is the physical differences that make Steven abnormal, or incomplete. As Mary ventures back to the market she notices that the young cashier, likely untouched by the danger of warfare, has lips, and is therefore more complete than Steven physically. The fact that the cashier has such full and apparent lips is