"She Went by Gently"

1)                  This shows in the midwife’s treatment of the girl in how the midwife didn’t have to help her and many people thought that she shouldn’t. The pregnant girl did nothing for her and got pregnant outside of marriage. According to the midwife’s husband, the girl did deserve the help that she gave and the effort she went through to get to the girl. When the midwife gets there, the girl doesn’t even treat her nicely. The girl talks back and looks down on herself. The midwife not only helped her with the child but also was very kind and forgiving to the girl.

2)      When she says that she saved him, she means that she saved him from Hell. An unbaptized person is not a part of God’s family or Church and therefore cannot go to heaven. She baptizes the baby in its brief moment of life so that it could join God’s family before it completely died. She saved the child from death just as Jesus saved us. She did not save his life but she saved his soul and that was what mattered to her the most. She was happy with what she had done and did not feel sorrow for the baby.

3)      From the rest of the story we get the thought that this woman is a very nice, Christian person. The author tells about her going home as a way to show the reader just how devout this midwife is. She thinks about how God blesses the world with light and beauty with the new dawn. She talks about her husband which gives a further example of her deep love of others despite who they are. The author was trying to convey just how special, kind, and loving this one woman is and how that has allowed her to change the lives of the people around her.