As Buddy is portrayed by Esther, the reader does not envision him as a dashing suitor. But what one cannot fathom is why Esther spent so much time with him, and so much time recounting a relationship with a boy whom she obviously did not like very much. Furthermore, she does not even seem to realize that Buddy does actually rather like her more than she likes him. Later, Buddy proudly shows her a poem of his that has been published — probably to please her, even if he does say that a poem is "just a piece of dust." Seemingly, Buddy is trying to compete with Esther in her field; but since he has no ambition to be a poet, we sense that in a simple-minded way, he is trying to draw closer to her.
Buddy takes Esther to see a baby being born, and we realize that he has attempted to involve her in his field before, with lectures on sickle-cell anemia and other "depressing diseases." He also shows her cadavers and babies preserved in bottles. We recall Esther's aversion to chemistry and physics, and we see clearly that Buddy and Esther are quite mismatched, as far as interests go. He tells Esther that there must be something in poetry if a girl like her is interested in it, and she tries to explain poems to him, but his mind does not seem to focus on the subject. After one such session, he responds by asking her if she's ever "seen a man," and he proceeds to undress in front of her. Buddy is always the clinical med student; Esther is always the sensitive, ambivalent poet. Buddy is practical and conventional; Esther is philosophical and unconventional. However, sometimes Esther has practical insights that go against the grain. For example, when she watches the birth of the baby and Buddy explains that the woman is under the influence of twilight sleep and that she won't remember a thing afterwards, Esther notes that the woman is moaning from the pain, and Esther thinks one might as well be awake and see the baby born if one is going to have the pain anyway.
