In "A Story about the Body," Robert Hass tackles an interesting concept, which is the perception of personal differences by others. A young composer believes himself to be falling in love with a painter, despite the fact that they have different interests, different ages, and different races. However, after the composer begins courting the painter, but before they can become intimate, she reveals to him that she has had a double mastectomy. The composer finds himself unable to deal with that possibility, and walks away from the painter. The next day, the composer finds that the painter has left him a bowl filled with dead bees and covered with rose petals. .

             While many people might concentrate on the composer's behavior, which is so inappropriate as to border on unacceptable, I actually find the painter's behavior more intriguing. First, although the composer was attracted to her despite obvious physical differences, the painter still found it necessary to warn him about the mastectomy. In fact, she uses the information almost pre-emptively; as soon as the possibility of intimacy presents itself, she tells the composer, "'I think you would like to have me. I would like that too, but I must tell you that I have had a double mastectomy.'" (Hass 36). Clearly, the painter has some feeling that the composer is the type of person who would reject her because of the surgery. Therefore, I find it odd that she thinks that she would like to have him, as well. .

             That the painter felt such apparently conflicting emotions made me wonder about the painter and, more so, about most women. Here is a character that Hass describes in a vibrant and attractive manner, and yet she is concerned that a lover would reject her because of a surgical scar. This is in the face of the fact that she is apparently older than the artist, which is already a tremendous physical taboo in modern society. In addition, it is also in the face of the fact that she is apparently a different race than the composer.