Give it Up!

"I'm not hurting the baby, he said."
Popular Mechanics

The style of the author of this story is extremely distinct; I noticed right away that no quotation marks were used, even though the story is consumed with dialogue. After reading the story once, I went back to read it again, wondering why the quotation marks were absent. I think the author used this particular style of writing to make the story flow, or be read more quickly. It helps the reader picture the actions happening quickly, hastily. I think it also shows that the words themselves aren't very important- it's the actions. The words that the mother and father speak are empty- they are really just fighting with one another- they don't want the baby. The lack of quotations helps illustrate this.
There is a story in the Bible that reminded me of this story- when two women both say that a particular baby is theirs, the king says that to be fair, he will cut the baby in half and both women can have half. However, the true mother is revealed when she obviously doesn't want her baby to die and offers to give it up to save it. If only the mother or father in this story had loved their baby enough to do the same.