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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Blind Assassin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth
Doomed Love
Oppression vs. Resistance
Violence and Death
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity
Summary
Analysis
In The Blind Assassin, the man asks the woman what kind of story she wants him to tell her, noting that he is best at science fiction. They are at the same picnic from when the photograph was taken. The man begins telling the story, set on the planet Zycron, which is “located in another dimension of space.” The planet features a purple ocean, mountains, “undead” women in tombs, a desert, canals, and the ruins of ancient civilizations. The man interrupts himself to asks if there are any cheese sandwiches left. The woman thinks that she has never been this happy before, and the man chimes in that everything about the situation is perfect.
In contrast to the sinister mystery introduced in the opening of the novel, this excerpt from The Blind Assassin depicts a decidedly happy, idyllic scene. The man and woman are evidently deeply in love and their romantic happiness is conveyed through storytelling.
Themes
There is a pile of rocks on Zycron that five separate tribes claim as their own, each of which tells a different version of the same story about the rocks. According to each story, the rocks are ruins of a city that was violently destroyed, all its inhabitants massacred. Each tribe claims that they were the ones to destroy the city. There is also an alternative myth, which posits that the city wasn't destroyed at all but instead shrunk and that it still exists at a smaller size today. The woman stops the man, telling him that she is cold and that she has to go home before people start wondering where she is. The man begs her not to go, but she says that she has to.
The woman’s interruption is important—it not only severs the story that the man is telling, bursting the illusion of the fictional world he is creating—it also serves as a reminder that there is something troubled (even doomed) about their love story. The woman is obviously not allowed to be at the picnic with him, although the reader does not yet know why this is. It seems that reality has encroached back into their fictional idyll.
Themes
Another newspaper article, this one from the Globe and Mail and dated June 4, 1947, describes the death of 47-year-old Richard E. Griffen. Griffen mysteriously disappeared for several days before his body was found in his sailboat near his house, which is named Avilion, in Port Ticonderoga. At the time of his death, Griffen was running as the Progressive Conservative candidate to represent the Toronto district of St. David’s. He was a textile, garment, and light manufacturer who played a crucial role supplying the army with uniforms and weapons. The Canadian Prime Minister gave a statement expressing his sorrow over Griffen’s death and calling him “one of this country’s most able men.” Griffen’s late sister-in-law Laura Chase’s first novel was posthumously published in May; he is survived by his sister Winifred, wife Iris, and 10-year-old daughter Aimee.
Due to the fact that Laura and Richard’s deaths appear in such close succession and are both announced via newspaper articles, the deaths are situated as parallels of each other. Moreover, both deaths appear to be accidents, but—given what Iris said about Laura’s death being a suicide—it is reasonable to assume that Richard’s could be a suicide, too. This creates a highly ominous atmosphere, a sense that something deeply disturbing is afoot in the Chase-Griffen family that has caused these two tragic, mysterious deaths.
Themes
Back in The Blind Assassin, the woman asks why there are humans on Zycron considering it’s in a whole other dimension of space. The man explains that 8,000 years ago, the Earth was colonized by Zycronites who developed a thriving civilization but who eventually “blew themselves up through being too clever.” Modern-day humans are descended from the “stragglers” who were left. The city that was destroyed and turned into a pile of rubble was called Sakiel-Norn, which means “The Pearl of Destiny.” It was known to be a supremely beautiful place. The elite class who lived there, the Snilfards, were “skilled metalworkers and inventors of ingenious mechanical devices.”
According to the man’s story, modern-day humans are descended from ancient Zycronites, and this detail is very important. This means that Zycronites are not distant aliens who have qualities, practices, and norms that are totally different from human culture—instead, they represent the very essence of what human culture is, because (at least according to the story) they are what humanity is descended from.
Themes
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Both male and female Snilfards wore fabric over their faces; covering one’s face without being a Snilfard was punishable by death. The Snilfards indulged in high culture and parties and conducted extramarital affairs. The lower class, which consisted of “smallholders, serfs, and slaves,” were the Ygnirods. The enslaved Ygnirods had no protection from being raped or murdered and were prohibited from learning how to read or write. Snilfards could become Ygnirods if they went bankrupt, whereas it was much harder for Ygnirods to become Snilards, even if they managed to grow wealthy. The woman points out that the man’s “Bolshevism” is influencing the story he is telling, but the man replies that Sakiel-Norn is actually based on ancient Mesopotamian culture.
The woman’s comment about the man’s “Bolshevism” is another important detail. The Blind Assassin was published in 1947, meaning that the story of the man and the woman comes from the first half of the 20th century. The Bolshevik Revolution, a communist uprising that led to the establishment of the Soviet Union, began in 1917. The woman thus indicates that the man is a communist who’s sympathetic to the Bolsheviks’ demands for the eradication of social inequality, poverty, and oppression.
Themes
The man and woman are having their picnic on a hot and humid August day. The man asks the woman where she is “supposed to be,” and she replies that she is pretending to be shopping. The man asks when he can see her. The woman looks nervous and the man assures her that no one she knows is in the park. He suggests that she get a dog, so that she can have the excuse of taking it for walks.
This passage confirms that the woman is not permitted to be seeing the man, but again, it is ambiguous exactly why this is the case. It could be that she is having some kind of extramarital affair with the man, or it could simply be that the social norms of her era prohibit her from dating or even spending time alone with men.
Themes
A Toronto Star article from August 25, 1975, describes the death of Aimee Griffen, the 38-year-old niece of the well-known novelist Laura Chase. Aimee is survived by her 4-year-old daughter Sabrina, whom she is believed to have neglected as a result of drug and alcohol addiction. Sabrina is now being cared for by her great-aunt Winifred.
The pattern of deaths (and, more specifically, suicides) continues here. Again, the fact that Aimee’s death is reported in a newspaper article rather than in the main narrative further associates it with the deaths of Laura and Richard.
Themes
In The Blind Assassin, the man calls the woman at home from a public phone, begging her to sneak out of the house to meet him. They meet at the park, hidden by the nighttime darkness. They smoke a cigarette together and the man continues with the story about Zycron, telling the woman that there are enslaved children in Sakiel-Norn. A major trading city, Sakiel-Norn was built by slave labor and is known for its luxury textiles, which are extraordinarily beautiful. In particular, the city produces carpets made by enslaved children, whose fingers are small enough to do the nimble work of weaving. This work eventually makes them blind, and carpet sellers brag about how many children are blinded making a given carpet.
The use of enslaved children to make textiles and the pride taken in blinding them in the process may seem exceptionally horrifying, but given the historical context of the novel and what the reader knows about the man’s political beliefs, it becomes clear that he is basing his depiction of Sakiel-Norn on reality. One of the main forces driving the expansion of communist belief in the early 20th century was objections to labor exploitation, including of children and textile workers.
Themes
After going blind, the children are sold into brothels, but some escape and become assassins. The woman interrupts the man and tells him the story is too sad. He replies that he tells the stories he’s “good at” and also the ones she’ll believe. When the woman continues to insist that it’s not good to be so cruel, the man replies that he is simply reflecting the nature of the world, which is a cruel place. There is a sense of tension between the man and the woman; the man hasn’t kissed the woman yet this evening. He asks her to stand at her bedroom window with the light on, claiming it’s so he can know that she has gotten home safe, although this isn’t the real reason. He says he will stand outside and wait to see the light, even though it’s raining.
The fact that the woman believes the story is too sad suggests that she may be more sheltered than the man, perhaps due to coming from a different class background and from having restricted access to education and the public sphere due to her gender. Indeed, the differences between the woman and man seem to both enhance and complicate their romantic union, as shown by the tensions that become apparent in this passage.
Themes
An obituary in a February 19, 1998 copy of The Globe and Mail lists the death of Winifred Griffen Prior, a “noted philanthropist” and the sister of Richard Griffen. She is survived by her great-niece Sabrina, who is “currently travelling in India.”
Winifred is the only character listed in the novel so far who died as an old woman, rather than under mysterious and tragic circumstances while fairly young. This perhaps suggests that although Winifred is part of the same family circle as Laura, Richard, and Aimee, she did not fall into the same sort of circumstances that led to their deaths.
Themes
In The Blind Assassin, the man and woman are in a car. They have “two or three hours” ahead to spend together. The man has borrowed the car from a friend and drives them to a spot under a bridge. The woman is nervous about being seen, but the man assures her that no one is around. Someone has drawn a heart in lipstick with the letter L and four letters in a square around it: F U C K. The man and the woman lie on the ground and have sex. Afterward, the man tells the woman not to “worship him,” gesturing to the fact that one day, their affair will have to end. The woman asks that they talk about something else, and the man resumes the story of Sakiel-Norn.
This passage oscillates between a romantic, idealized version of love and the more mundane, even vulgar aspect of relationships. There is an indication that the woman prefers the former view of romance, whereas the man has a more down-to-earth attitude, as evidenced when he tells her not to “worship him.” This difference in opinion about romance likely contributes to the evident tension between the couple.
Themes
In Sakiel-Norn, it is taboo to mention that the city’s wealth is created by slave labor. A practice of human sacrifice has been around since the city’s mythical founding, when its nine founding fathers are said to have sacrificed their own children to the gods. Of the nine gates surrounding the city, four are in pairs, with one for entering and one for exiting; the ninth gate is for the gods. It is at this gate that human sacrifices take place. Families do what they can to protect their children from being sacrificed. For instance, Snilfards “mutilate” their female children because sacrificing a girl with a deformity is seen as an insult to the gods.
Again, Sakiel-Norn may seem unusually brutal and horrifying due to the fact that it has practices—including human sacrifice—that are likely unfamiliar to the reader. At the same time, it is important to remember that human sacrifice has been part of many different cultures over different historical periods. In the Bible, for example, God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son, and Abraham agrees to do so.
Themes
Snilfards also adopt “foundlings” in order to sacrifice them instead of their biological children. Eventually, they stop bothering to raise these adopted girls in their own homes, instead giving them straight to temples to be raised in their names, like “owning a racehorse.” Over time, there is a decline in religious belief, although the ritual of human sacrifice continues for the sake of tradition. Some of the girls who are raised to be sacrificed end up rebelling once they discover their fate. As a result, it becomes common for these girls’ tongues to be cut out three months before they are due to be killed. The man compares these mute girls being led to the sacrificial altar to “pampered society bride[s].”
This passage contains an important example of the man’s veiled critique of wealthy people and the way in which they can behave as if they are above the law. In theory, religion should be an equalizing force, yet the wealthy Snilfards find a way to exempt themselves from the practice of human sacrifice by essentially buying others to be sacrificed instead of their own children. This could be interpreted as a critique of social inequality under capitalism.
Themes
This comment infuriates the woman, who accuses the man of being titillated by his own story. The man apologizes for upsetting her and offers to rewrite the story, but the woman replies that it’s too late and gets up to leave. The man begs her to stay, and eventually the woman asks him what she is going to do when the man is no longer there. The man assures her that she will “get over it.”
As can commonly happen between romantic couples, the woman’s objections to the man’s storytelling are really about something else—she seems concerned about how she will survive without him, although it is not yet clear where he is going.
Themes
In 1998, the alumni newsletter of Colonel Henry Parkman High School announces a new $200 creative writing prize in memory of Laura Chase. The prize is named in honor of the “famed local authoress” Laura Chase, and Laura’s sister Iris will present the inaugural award.
The prize named after Laura might make it appear as if The Blind Assassin achieved prominence and acclaim, but the fact that it is hosted by her own high school suggests that her fame may only be local.
Themes
