Mouth full of Birds

Her head is hidden in her crossed arms, because it's better if they don't see her face.
-- Narrator (Olingiris)

Importance: In Olingiris, Schweblin makes her two main characters, the assistant and the woman on the cot, both nameless and faceless, a common writing tactic she uses in order to make her characters more elusive. The woman on the cot, through hiding her head, gives the reader the flexibility to assign any attributes to her. She, in a sense, becomes "woman" with the reader being left to fill in the blanks in regard to her appearance. By refusing to give the assistant and the woman on the cot a name, Schweblin effectively removes an indicator for identity. She makes up for this by providing detailed descriptions of the women's pasts. Though she ultimately removes key identifying factors for the characters, Schweblin contrasts this with detailed descriptions of their pasts.