[2] According to Jackson's biographer Judy Oppenheimer, the idea for the story came from apartment neighbors she knew in real life, Ben Zimmerman and Taissa Kellman.
Taissa and Stanley Edgar Hyman (Jackson's husband) refused to leave when Ben was expecting a guest.
[3] Reviewer L. Timmel Duchamp claims that most of Jackson's fiction "presents mundane reality as troubled with sinister currents", citing this short story as an example.
He claims that Jackson shows an "ambiguous obsession with domestic work" in the story through David's concern with the organization of his apartment.
Ferri claims that Jackson's story collection displays "the presence of total and absolute evil in daily life", reinforced by the ominous James Harris.