What is a gift? A gesture of gratitude? But what lies underneath that gratitude is really displaced guilt. Guilt for not being the first to extend the gesture. In some ways, the gift is binding, like a contract. The store that SZ finds herself in is the manifestation of the many contracts and bonds that we observe in human interaction.
When SZ arrives at the store, she is in a vulnerable state. She will have just committed an act that flared up her guilt and low sense of self. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She thought that somehow the experience would free her, but only a free woman can experience a free act. She is left feeling enslaved and dejected. She wants to hide in her veil and never emerge again.