SK provides substantial amount of fears and phobias; and which are more common amongst women as they had developed fear mechanisms when in prehistoric times they were more exposed to dangerous situations of meeting spiders and snakes while foraging and gathering food. Detection of these was crucial to their survival and that of their offspring. Buss states ‘fitness costs of being bitten by a snake or spider would have been greater for women than for men because infants and young children historically, rarely survived a mother’s death’ (Rakison 439). If Amrita had perceived the potential threat, she would have ‘increase the speed with which an organism responds to them’ (Tracy 309). Furthermore, not fearing Kamakhya lead to the unfortunate kidnap. …show more content…
Another fear exploited by Simmons is the fear of losing a child. He gives the readers enough cues to connect to Victoria. A parent’s fascination and love are felt when the protagonist says ‘Victoria’s development was worthy of serious study by anyone’ (SK 15). Larger endocranial size and bipedalism resulted in children born prematurely and are dependent for a longer period (Campbell 205) and therefore greater attachment to them. This cute, little and harmless child’s abduction and death leave readers utterly disturbed. Victoria as a human carrier could be a metaphor for the underlying problem of female infanticide in India. In many Asian countries ‘female are found to be disadvantage’ and female infanticide has due to the preference to male babies (Fuse and Crenshaw 360). Fuse and Crenshaw argue that, ‘improve the economic worth of females and concomitantly encourage the schooling of female children, thereby reducing the likelihood of female neglect and/ or infanticide’ (362) and Amrita not working during might be foreshadowing for the economic conditions of