Chapter 5: The Butcher's Wife

For me, this chapter is about Eva and her kitchen, and what it becomes to Delphine as she begins her friendship with the Butcher's Wife. She finds Eva a fantastic creature, talented at keeping everything in order at all times; a wife, a mother, a shopkeeper, a baker, and anything else that was needed of her. It is true that Delphine is envious of Eva, but she also respects her as a person seeing what life is supposed to be like for the first time. Coming into her kitchen is like coming into the most perfectly home-like place on earth, and Delphine realizes how desperately she has been needing that feeling in her life. It essentially becomes a sanctuary for her, a place where she learns how to put her womanly talents and desires into practice for the first time. Not because desperation and taking care of her father force her to, but because Eva makes it enjoyable and comforting for her.