--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The baby's large eyes settled on him, and…" description: "\"“The baby's large eyes settled on him, and though this has been one of his happiest nights in his whole life, it made him melancholy. He had read somew..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/009/dan-chaon-2729_cause-and-effect_the-baby-s-large-eyes-settled-on-him-and_1953812.png" --- # The baby's large eyes settled on him, and though this has… ![“The baby's large eyes settled on him, and though this has been one of his happiest nights in his whole life, it made him melancholy. He had read somewhere that babies are instinctively drawn to faces, that they will fixate even on drawings or abstract, facelike shapes, and round objects with…” quote by Dan Chaon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/009/dan-chaon-2729_cause-and-effect_the-baby-s-large-eyes-settled-on-him-and_1953812.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/009/dan-chaon-2729_cause-and-effect_the-baby-s-large-eyes-settled-on-him-and_1953812.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/009/dan-chaon-2729_cause-and-effect_the-baby-s-large-eyes-settled-on-him-and_1953812.png) > ““The baby's large eyes settled on him, and though this has been one of his happiest nights in his whole life, it made him melancholy. He had read somewhere that babies are instinctively drawn to faces, that they will fixate even on drawings or abstract, facelike shapes, and round objects with markings that might resemble eye-mouth-nose. It was information that struck him as terribly sad, terribly lonely - to imagine the infants of the world scoping the blurry atmosphere above them for faces the way primitive people scrutinized the stars for patterns, the way castaways stare at the moon, the blinking of a satellite. It made him sad to think of the baby gathering information - a mind, a soul, slowly solidifying around these impressions, coming to understand cause and effect, coming out of a blank or fog into reality. Into a reality. The true terror, Jonah thought, the true mystery of life was not that we are all going to die, but that we were all born, that we were all once little babies like this, unknowing and slowly reeling in the world, gathering it loop by loop like a ball of string. The true terror was that we once didn't exist and then, through no fault of our own, we had to.”” [Dan Chaon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-chaon/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Observing a baby’s instinct to seek faces reveals humanity’s deep need for connection and the existential terror of being born into an unknown world. **In simple terms:** Babies seek faces, reflecting our innate desire for meaning. Key Takeaway Recognize the shared longing for connection. Themes existence loneliness meaning human nature Mood reflective melancholic Type philosophical literary When to use this quote - parenting - education - mental health - creative writing Key Concepts psychology existentialism Questions to Reflect On - How do we find meaning in uncertainty? - Can we comfort the newborn’s loneliness? 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