The narrator, who remains nameless, is born without knowledge of the world before and raised without proper human connection or experience. So she is detached emotionally as she goes out in the world, escaping the cage. Her only experience in the world that gave her purpose was to help the other women, building houses, venturing for supplies, and mercy killings as women aged or got ill.

The book shifts from male gaze when in the cage to no gaze, since our narrator has no societal context. This book stands out to me because our narrator experiences a world in a clinically detached way, and appreciates having a purpose, while also yearning to be free of the constraints of their makeshift society of women in the wilderness. It makes you think that true freedom is being relieved of all social and societal expectations.