First Physical Exchange Between Rachel And Wanda example essay topic

The thirteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States asserts that it is unlawful for one human being to buy another. Yet in today's society an exorbitant amount of money fluctuates in and out of the adoption system. Couples looking to adopt face a scheme of excessive fees and disproportionate expenses. This makes adoption nearly impossible for those who cannot afford high travel expenses, legal fees, and medical bills, among an array of other costs.

It also creates the mindset that because the couple is paying such a great deal for their adoptive child, they have the right to pick and choose exactly what type of child they want. One can easily see how a child can become viewed more as a possession than as an actual human life. It is this mentality that fosters the use of children for financial gain. In today's society, children are too often used a bargaining tool by parents. The film, The Baby Dance, examines the different ways that children are used for personal gain. From the beginning of the movie, money plays a significant role in the lives of everyone involved.

Rachel and Richard are unable to produce children together in the traditional respect, yet they possess the financial resources to seek alternative methods. At the same time, Wanda and Al already have four children for whom they are struggling to care. Wanda is pregnant with a fifth child, and she and Al cannot keep up with their phone bills. Unlike Rachel and Richard, Wanda and Al lack the economic resources to take care of another child, as they can barely afford the children they already have. The irony lies in the fact that both couples hold something greatly valued: Rachel and Al may have a wealth of money, but Wanda and Al have the ability to produce children. This sets the stage for the bargaining that will later take place between the two couples.

At the first meeting between Rachel and Wanda, Rachel gives Wanda a beautiful bouquet of flowers. This is the first physical exchange between Rachel and Wanda. It signifies the larger exchanges that are going come. In addition, the flowers that Rachel gives Wanda represent Rachel's mentality as far as using her money to get what she wants. The large bouquet is extravagant and flamboyant. Undoubtedly Rachel spent a considerable amount of money on these flowers, but they lacked meaning.

Their significance lies in the fact that Rachel is using her financial resources to try to fill a void that Wanda feels about giving up her child. Al later returns and presents Wanda with another bouquet of flowers. Although these flowers are very plain and simple, they clearly mean a great deal more to Wanda than the flowers that she received from Rachel. This dual metaphor shows that the love and thought that goes along with the exchange of something as simple as flowers means more than what the flowers actually look like or where they came from. This hints that perhaps the unconditional love involved in raising a child is more important that where that child came from. Throughout the term of the pregnancy, Rachel tries to change Wanda's habits.

She gives Wanda and Al money for an air conditioner, and for a very prestigious doctor. Rachel encourages Wanda to take vitamins, as well as not to smoke or drink caffeinated coffee. However, it is clear to all involved that Rachel's concerns have little to do with Wanda's well-being, but everything to do with the baby. Rachel is ensuring that her little 'project' comes to her without damages.

While Wanda knows that some of her habits may not be ideal for her unborn child, the emotional suffering that she is undergoing in order to provide for not only this child, but for her other children as well, force her to seek these comforts. Wanda must compromise a part of herself and is torn over it. Her selflessness and lack of self-worth put her at risk for a high amount of stress, which is much more harmful to her and her baby than a cup of coffee or a cigarette. In spite of how close she is to getting a child, Rachel feels a sense of anger towards Wanda because she herself did everything 'right' when she was pregnant, and yet she still lost her babies. In Rachel's eyes, Wanda takes her fertility for granted. However, Wanda is jealous of the fact that Rachel will be able to give her unborn child anything that it desires.

When the two women finally confront each other, Rachel accuses Wanda of using her child as a bargaining tool. Wanda is severely hurt by this comment, as she would never choose to give up her baby, if it were not for her impoverished financial circumstances. Wanda cries, "Whatever you can't do as woman, you can just go out and buy it!" The concept of buying a child as if one was making a trip to the supermarket raises many issues, including the issue of whether or not money should be involved in adoption cases at all. And thus the question of reproductive ethics arises. Should parents be allowed to sell their children, even to couples who cannot have their own?

While Wanda is in labor, Richard, his lawyer, and Al spend the time working out the contracts and the legal details of the adoption. This seems ironic that they are more concerned about the money involved in the exchange than they are in the healthy delivery of the baby itself. The fist-fight that results when Al asks that Richard buy him a new car is more about the lack of masculinity that both men feel. Richard feels inadequate because he cannot give his wife a child; yet Al feels inadequate because he cannot provide basic necessities for his family, such as a vehicle. At the end of the fight, Richard says to Al, "What can I say, you " ll always have the advantage over me; you have the ability to make life", and to his lawyer, "Work it out however he wants". This truly portrays the essence of the entrapment of financial status.

Both men are trapped by their need for what they can't have, and as a result, they resort to bargaining. At the end of the film, the baby that caused the families both heartache and happiness is abandoned entirely. Wanda had no choice to part with her infant daughter because she could not feasibly take care of her. However, Rachel also felt forced to part with "her daughter", because she could not bear to sacrifice her marriage. Richard could not deal with raising a child that could have severe development damage, even though there was a possibility that it wouldn't. This raises the issue of parental selection.

Parental selection is the idea that parents can choose what they want their child to be like. For example, Rachel and Richard decided that they didn't want a short child, and so they refused to do 'business' with birth parents that were short. Should parents be able to choose their children? This transposes the concept of the unconditional love that parents have for their children. Because Rachel and Richard could afford to adopt a different baby, they had the choice of what they wanted in a child. When they later decided that they would not raise Wanda's baby, the couple continued to use their financial status to buy themselves a new and different child, as though they were returning damaged goods to a department store and looking for something better.

Thus the real meaning of the film surfaces; parents become so wrapped up in having a child that they come to see them as no more than a possession. Once a child is seen as only a possession, hopeful parents will go to any length necessary to obtain that possession, including using and abusing financial resources and economic standing. When Wanda returns Rachel's flowers, it suggests the fact that Rachel 'returned' Wanda's baby. Not only were the flowers the first physical exchange between Rachel and Wanda, but they were also the last.

The flowers symbolize the unborn baby throughout the play. Rachel buys them to give to Wanda, after which Wanda gives them water to help them grow. However, in the end, neither Rachel nor Wanda keeps the flowers. In a sense, the flowers are abandoned just as the baby is. This equates the baby, a human life, with a bouquet of flowers. However, the flowers will wither and die, but the baby will live, without a home.