Compare And Contrast Between The Pools And The Gardenias

In Between the Pools and the Gardenias, a maid named Marie finds a dead baby in the street. She names it Rose and tells it about her miscarriages, her cheating husband, and the Dominican pool-cleaner who slept with her once. Marie pretends the house where she works belongs to her and the Dominican man. When the baby rots, she covers it with perfume and tries to wash it, but she finally decides the flies are trapping Rose’s spirit and buries Rose by the gardenias. The Dominican calls the police, claiming Marie killed the baby for evil purposes.
Marie and Rose are both similar. Marie has a childlike ignorance. Even after Rose starts to smell, Marie continues to wash her and sing to her and tell her stories. Rose is a dead baby. She was lying
in the street, abandoned, until Marie came to pick her up. No one wanted the both of them. Marie’s husband left her and had children with other women. Rose was alive at one point but the mother left her.
Although both characters are similar, the theme that everyone suffers in their own way is evident in the story. Rose suffered by being abandoned. Rose’s struggles aren’t told because of the third person limited point of view. We can see Marie’s struggles however. Marie suffered through miscarriages. She was cheated on by her husband who left her to have children with many other women. She was also arrested because she attempted to bury Rose’s dead body. She is also stuck between the gender and racial inequality. Marie’s employer’s insult her calling her a manbo and other things. Marie is not even given a chance to share what happened when the pool cleaner comes to the scene.