The Blind Assassin

by

Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
In the present day, a tornado approaches Port Ticonderoga, and Iris remembers the advice Reenie used to give about never speaking on the phone or having a bath during a thunderstorm. After it passes, Iris gets up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep again. She goes outside, feeling bold for doing so. She thinks about Myra’s warnings about muggers who come from Toronto and target old ladies. She hears footsteps behind her and turns to see a young woman, who for a second she thinks is Sabrina. However, just as Iris feels overcome with happiness, she realizes it is not Sabrina after all.  
Iris has come to feel somewhat helpless in her old age, not only due to her physical frailty but also her diminished social status and isolation. Perhaps for this reason, she is consumed by thoughts of her mother-figure, Reenie, and she remains closely attached to Reenie’s daughter. Even though Myra is younger, Iris seems to take on a parental attitude toward her—perhaps because Aimee’s death and Sabrina’s absence have left Iris with a sense of emptiness.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Returning to Avilion, Iris describes Liliana’s sealskin coat that she and Laura would play with after their mother’s death. Eventually, someone gives the coat to charity. After Lilian dies, Laura asks questions about the stillborn baby and she won’t accept the answers Reenie gives her. Liliana’s funeral shook Laura’s faith in God and she suddenly needs to know “God’s exact location.” She feels conscious of being constantly watched by God and worried that He will do something terrible like in the Old Testament of the Bible. Sometimes, at night, Laura wakes Iris up by snoring, and Iris sneaks off to the garden by herself. Like most children, Iris believes that she’s to blame for everything bad that happened—yet also that a “happy ending” is sure to come.
Throughout the novel, some of Laura’s behavior indicates that she may be suffering from mental health problems. In this passage, her devout religious faith turns into a kind of paranoia about being watched. However, Laura’s anxieties could be due to the nature of what she has been taught to believe. After all, Christianity generally teaches that God is everywhere, all-powerful, and always watching and judging—it is arguably unsurprising that this might spark fear in a child.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Iris helps Laura get dressed in the morning, and the girls spend a lot of time alone together exploring Avilion. Winter comes and the Louveteau freezes; the sound of children playing in the snow can be heard all around. In the spring, a woman jumps off the Jubilee Bridge and her body is torn apart in the defrosted river. Mrs. Hillcoate mentions another woman who’d killed herself jumping off the bridge because she’d gotten pregnant from an extramarital affair. In June, Iris turns 10. One day, Iris overhears Reenie saying that Liliana had been a “saint on earth” and that she’s concerned that Laura will be forced to grow up too quickly by spending so much time around Iris.
This suicide at Jubilee Bridge foreshadows Laura’s own death, as the reader knows that Laura drives off a bridge when she’s 25. Additionally, the fact that the woman was pregnant by an affair gives the reader a sense of how important social expectations were to women during this time—this woman clearly believed that killing herself and her unborn baby would be preferable to enduring the shame of bearing a child born out of wedlock.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Back in the present, Iris walks to the bank early in the morning. She feels like everyone there hates her for the fact that she was once wealthy but no longer is (even though, as she points out, this wealth never technically belonged to her but instead to her father and husband). On the way home from the bank, she passes the Town Hall, which is adorned with two statues. One of them was commissioned by Adelia to memorialize the American colonel who named Port Ticonderoga, and the other was a “mythic figure” called the Weary Soldier commissioned by Norval. Controversially, he recruited a young female sculptor named Callista Fitzsimmons to make it.
This passage continues to explore the theme of sexist oppression. In particular, it illuminates what a strange experience it must be for Iris to have lived across the span of the 20th century and witnessed the profound changes to women’s status that occurred during this time.
Themes
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Get the entire The Blind Assassin LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Blind Assassin PDF
When young Iris meets Callista, who goes by Callie, the sculptor is 28 and striking. Before long, Callie comes to visit every weekend. Norval seems happier, drinks less, and occasionally throws small parties attended by Callie’s bohemian friends from Toronto. He and Callie also go on dates, sometimes staying away for days at a time. Iris is “in awe” of Callie due to her beauty, creativity, and power, but Reenie dismisses her as “one of the floozies.” She and Mrs. Hillcoate disapprovingly discuss a rumor that Callie has gone skinny-dipping, and Reenie calls her a “gold-digger.”
During this period, a new generation of women were choosing to resist the strict social expectations placed on them and live lives characterized by independence, pleasure, and freedom. It is these women whom Reenie dismissively calls “floozies” (an antiquated derogatory term for a promiscuous woman). This highlights the important fact that women faced scorn from other women, not just from men, for violating gender norms.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
The Weary Soldier is also met with objections for being too depressing, rather than victorious. Yet Norval refuses to change the figure’s expression or to emblazon it with a triumphant phrase, instead opting for, “Les We Forget.” The sculpture is finished and unveiled on November 11, 1928. During the ceremony, there are prayers and sermons, and Norval is given the role of lying the first wreath. After, Iris watches him and notices that he’s shaking with emotion. Once the ceremony is over, Laura asks Reenie and Mrs. Hillcoate many questions about the idea of sacrificing oneself in the war. Reenie assures Laura that she’ll understand when she’s older.
Although Callie is rebellious in a more obvious way than Norval, it is significant that they connect over the Weary Soldier sculpture that he commissions her to make. In depicting the soldier as dejected rather than triumphant, Norval rebels against the demand to whitewash the grim realities of war—a significant act of transgression against expectations to be patriotic and pro-war.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
A week later, Laura slips into the Louveteau while she and Iris are walking beside it. After Iris manages to get Laura out, she accuses her of jumping in on purpose. Bawling, Laura says she did it “So God would let Mother be alive again.” Iris knows the only way to counter this logic is to argue that God wants Laura to be alive, which is why He allowed Iris to save her. That night, Iris is kept awake by thoughts of how easily she could have let her sister go.
Throughout Laura’s life, she turns toward acts of self-sacrifice as a method of helping others. As is made clear in this passage, this is not usually a very helpful tactic. However, people often turn to self-harm and self-sacrifice when they feel completely powerless, which is arguably true of Laura.
Themes
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Iris and Laura don’t go to school but instead have tutors, whom they treat with hostility. Craving independence, they sneak into town whenever they can, heedless of Reenie’s warnings about the dangers that lurk there. One of Reenie’s brothers is involved with smuggling magazines in from across the American border. Iris and Laura delight in reading the science-fiction volumes he supplies, precisely because they are, in Reenie’s words, “like nothing on earth.” They feel both “grateful” and left out due to not attending the local public school. One of their tutors, Miss Violet Goreham, is a 41-year-old woman whom Iris secretly nicknames Miss Violence. Reenie mentions that Miss Violence is an “old maid,” explaining that this means that she doesn’t have a husband. Reenie adds that it’s obvious no man has ever shown interest in her.
Considering the repressive nature of the girls’ lives, it is unsurprising that Iris and Laura seek escape in science fiction. Indeed, the growth in popularity of science fiction over the course of the 20th century has an interesting relationship with the changing nature of social life on Earth and, in particular, the increase in the rights of women and minorities. Imagining different worlds that were “like nothing on earth” helped people conceive of their own new ways of life, free of oppression and deterministic ways of thinking.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Miss Violence gives the girls more freedom than the other tutors—for example, by letting Iris pick the books she wants to read herself. She often speaks about the themes of “boundless love” and “hopeless melancholy” in the literature they read. Miss Violence sighs when moved by what they read, and Iris feels that the woman belongs in Avilion with its outdated, fading grandeur and its sense of wistfulness and regret. Miss Violence likes reading romantic novels that she borrows from the library and looking through Adelia’s scrapbooks. Iris and Laura grow to like her. When she leaves, she cries, but the girls don’t.
The novel’s sympathetic portrayal of Miss Violence serves as a reminder that those who are dismissed and excluded by society—including “old maids” like Miss Violence—often have fascinating and appealing attributes that get missed due to judgment. Furthermore, while Miss Violence is looked down upon for never marrying, she leads the kind of independent life that both Iris and Laura crave. 
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
After Iris turns 13, Norval begins intervening in the way she dresses, speaks, and carries herself. He feels that she’s been given too much freedom and that now she needs to be restrained. At the time, Iris doesn’t understand why she’s suddenly being subjected to this extra discipline, as she’s done nothing wrong. When Iris gets her first period, she tells Callie, convinced she’s dying. Callie explains that it isn’t serious and suggests that Iris call it “my friend” or “a visitor,” but Reenie refers to it as “the curse.” When Laura sees a bloodstain on Iris’s bed, she weeps, thinking that Iris is going to die like Liliana. In a photograph taken during this time, both girls are smiling, but it is obvious that they are doing so because otherwise they would get in trouble.
This chaotic passage again emphasizes how damaging it is to suppress information about women’s bodies and reproduction—particularly from women themselves. Even the progressive and bohemian Callie brushes Iris off and tells her to refer to her period by a euphemism rather than properly explaining menstruation, which highlights the limits of liberal attitudes toward women’s bodies at the time.
Themes
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
After Miss Violence’s departure, Norval laments that there are gaps in the girls’ education, particularly on more challenging subjects. He employs a new tutor, Mr. Erskine, who previously taught at a boy’s school in England. Mr. Erskine is much stricter than Miss Violence and regularly resorts to corporal punishment. He’s merciless and sarcastic, which confuses Laura. Reenie is horrified about Mr. Erskine’s behavior when the girls tell her about it, but he dismisses her when she tries to speak to him. The girls do end up gaining knowledge from his lessons, albeit in a painful way. One day, Laura placidly tells Iris that Mr. Erskine often puts his hands down her shirt or into her panties. Iris is stunned, and Laura immediately observes that Iris doesn’t believe her.
This is a key moment in the novel, the interpretation of which will likely have a decisive impact on the extent of the sympathy the reader extends toward Iris later in the novel. On one level, Iris’s decision not to believe Laura could be read as an unforgiveable betrayal, particularly considering Laura is the younger sister and Iris is supposed to be looking after her. At the same time, perhaps Laura’s calm delivery of her confession confused Iris, who, after all, is still a child herself at this time.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Reenie, however, immediately believes Laura, and she ensures Mr. Erskine is fired by claiming to have found pornographic material in his room. Watching Reenie denounce Mr. Erskine for his lustful nature makes one of the workers at the button factory, Ron Hincks, fall in love with her. Laura feels that God answered her prayers to be saved from Mr. Erskine. She briefly considers becoming a nun, although Reenie persuades her out of it. Meanwhile, the Great Depression has a negative (although not devastating) impact on Chase Industries, and austerity arrives at Avilion. Iris turns 16 and her formal schooling ends. Reenie reads Mayfair magazine, dreaming of Avilion’s former genteel glory. Iris knows that if Adelia were still alive, she would have a host of helpful advice for her.
Reenie’s intervention in this moment is crucial. It shows that she is ready to protect and support Iris and Laura even if this jeopardizes her own position (which would have been possible, considering she had to resort to planting pornographic material in Mr. Erskine’s room). Yet while Reenie’s act is heartwarming, it is deeply tragic that telling Norval the truth about Mr. Erskine molesting Laura was seemingly not considered an option. In such an environment of secrecy and repression, it is easy for abuse to occur.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
In the present day, Labour Day has passed and milder weather has arrived, making it easier to walk. Still, Iris accepts a lift from Myra when she drives up and offers to bring her to the Camp Grounds. The park is dirty and strewn with drug paraphernalia, condoms, and other litter. Yet in the past, it was well tended, a place where religious meetings took place as well as the Chase and Sons Labour Day Celebration. On this day, there would be games, music, food, and general “hijinks.” During the Depression, the once lively atmosphere of the celebration dims a little. On this day, Norval’s speech encourages attendees to remain hopeful about the future. Iris and Laura are there, in outfits carefully chosen by Reenie to be neither too fancy nor too informal.
The fact that Iris and Laura wear carefully-selected outfits that are neither too fancy nor too casual to the Labour Day picnic highlights the hypocrisy of their social class. Throughout the rest of the novel, the Chase family and others like them make sure to display their wealth (even if this is done in understated ways). Yet now that workers are facing increased poverty and exploitation due to the Depression, the family pretends to be more humble than it really is, likely to avoid resistance.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
For the first time in the history of the Labour Day picnic, Norval “stumbled” while delivering his speech. Afterward, Iris helps Reenie with the bake sale. Iris asks Laura to come too, but when Laura says no Iris didn’t insist, even though she’s supposed to be taking care of her. Iris is tired of always having to look out for Laura and she fantasizes about going off on travels and adventures herself. She worries that if she stays in Port Ticonderoga, she’ll become an “old maid” like Miss Violence.
Iris’s feelings normal, as most teenage girls dream of independence and adventure for themselves. The fact that Iris faces the additional responsibility of taking care of a highly sensitive, unpredictable younger sister likely makes her feel even more constrained than she otherwise would. Still, some might argue that she is irresponsible to leave Laura unattended.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
A fight breaks out, and the editor of the local newspaper, Elwood Murray, is knocked to the floor. Murray is generally considered a “fool” and a “pansy” because he’s fairly old and still unmarried. People also object to his “nosy” behavior. Norval comes over, accompanied by an elegant man Iris has never seen before. Reenie calls the man “Mr. Royal Classic,” a nickname derived from the fact that he owns Royal Classic Knitwear. His real name is Richard Griffen and he’s Norval’s rival, so it’s surprising that he’s at the picnic. Reenie is horrified to hear that Norval has invited Richard to dinner at Avilion on very short notice, giving her little time to prepare for what will have to be an impressive occasion.
At the time a “pansy” was a derogatory term used to describe gay men; it expressed prejudice not only against men who had sex with men but also men who had feminine characteristics. This passage indicates that the legitimate objections to Elwood Murray (i.e., to his nosiness) were mixed in with baseless prejudice about his sexuality.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Gossiping about Richard, Reenie claims that he’s “new money” and that he’s gained his fortune by “cheating the Jews.” Iris notices a slender, luxuriously-dressed woman who she believes is Richard’s wife walking with him. Reenie scolds Iris for losing Laura, although Iris quickly finds her sitting with a young man on the grass dressed in a “proletarian mode.” Laura introduces him as Alex Thomas, explaining that he is a friend of Callie’s. When Iris mentions Richard, Alex called him “the sweatshop tycoon.” Alex offers Iris a cigarette, and she accepts. Elwood Murray comes over and takes a photograph of the three of them. Reenie then comes rushing over, saying that Richard is looking for the girls. She scolds them for sitting with strangers and smoking.
It is significant—and perhaps not surprising—that Iris and Laura are drawn to Alex, who represents the opposite of their own background. Befriending Alex is a way for them to enact their own youthful rebellion and learn about a worldview completely different from the one which they’ve grown up. Of course, while Alex and Norval are oppositional in many ways, Alex’s true foil is Richard. 
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Laura said that the stranger is Alex Thomas, explaining that he recently dropped out of divinity school after losing his faith. Reenie reacts with suspicion, asking “who is he,” which means she wants to know who Alex’s family is. Laura replies that he’s an orphan who was adopted from an orphanage by a minister and his wife. Reenie exclaims, “An orphan! […] He could be anybody!” To Reenie’s further horror, Laura then announces that she invited him to dinner.
Reenie’s horror at Alex being an orphan may be surprising to the reader. After all, it is hardly Alex’s fault that he was born an orphan, and surely it would make more sense to be sympathetic to him due to this fact. However, Reenie finds orphans suspicious because they cannot be accurately placed within a class hierarchy, which is determined by one’s family.
Themes
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
The Labour Day dinner has stuck in Iris’s memory because “it was the only time all of us were ever in the same room together.” In preparation, Reenie consults a cookbook called The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, which had once belonged to Adelia. It begins with an epigraph by John Ruskin, which characterizes women across history and geography as “loaf givers.” Grumbling about Alex, Reenie says that he looked like “some half-breed Indian, or else a gypsy.” Norval, meanwhile, warns Laura that she needs to stop extending charitable invitations to strangers. However, Callie assures Norval that Alex is “all right.”
The Labour Day dinner is indeed an unlikely gathering of very different kinds of people who all happen to be connected with the Chase family in some way. Almost everyone attending has a negative opinion of at least one of the other guests—hardly the ideal circumstances for a dinner party.
Themes
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Iris helps set the table, seating Alex next to herself. Although Laura is considered too young to attend a dinner, she had invited a guest and is was reluctantly permitted to join. Neither of the girls are allowed wine, which annoys Iris. A “dowdy” unmarred cousin of Reenie’s serves the alcohol. The woman whom Iris had assumed was Richard’s wife is actually his sister Winifred, who goes by “Mrs.” but doesn’t seem to have a husband to speak of. Because of the Depression, far fewer people have been commissioning Callie’s sculptures, and so she has resorted to making bas-reliefs for the outside of insurance companies and banks. She doesn’t like working for such “blatant capitalists,” but she at least appreciates the public-facing nature of the work they commission.
Although Iris and Laura have only just met Alex, there is already a palpable hint of competition between the sisters over Alex’s affections. The fact that Iris puts herself next to Alex suggests that she wants to get closer to him and perhaps to beat Laura for his affections. Moreover, meeting him has intensified Iris’s desire to fully participate in adult life, for example by drinking wine with everyone else at the table.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Callie’s outfit looks like an attempt at signaling resistance to the dinner, whereas Alex seems to have borrowed the clothes he was wearing. Winifred compliments the house as “well preserved,” but Iris knew she actually means “outmoded.” The elaborate dinner Reenie cooks is clearly beyond her skill-set, but Iris feels annoyed at Winifred for not eating it. Alex makes an effort to eat, although Reenie is not flattered but rather irritated by this. When Norval asks Alex about himself, Alex explains that he left divinity school and has since “lived by [his] wits,” which Winifred interprets as meaning that he’s a journalist. This angers Norval, who hates reporters. 
There is a complicated array of social dynamics at this dinner, but few are occur in an open, explicit way. Rather, people’s thoughts are conveyed via subtext (or simply kept to themselves). This preserves the illusion of a polite, cohesive meal, when in fact many of the guests at the dinner distrust and dislike one another.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Alex then criticizes the Prime Minister’s relief camps, arguing that the men there have to work 10 hours a day and hardly get anything in return, to which Richard replies: “Beggars can’t be choosers.” The argument is interrupted by the arrival of dessert. After, the group has coffee and watches the fireworks being set off on the Camp Grounds. Alex comments that he finds it difficult to enjoy fireworks because he believes both his parents died in the war, although he didn’t know for certain. He was found in a burned-down house after a bombing in a small Western European country.
In many ways, Alex is a classic romantic hero: he is bold, rebellious, and unafraid to stand up for what he believes in. Moreover, he is mysterious. He is unlike anyone else in the novel so far, and he’s also an enigma in the sense that he doesn’t know anything about his background, making him the very definition of a self-invented person.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Iris is warming to Alex, though she isn’t sure if she believes his story. Iris comments that it must be hard for him to not know his true identity, but he replies that he has come to believe that there is value is having a sense of self that doesn’t rely on knowing his origins. Speaking from the present, Iris wonders if this moment was “the beginning,” but then admits that it is hard to know when beginnings really occur.
Considering that much of the novel deals with the burden caused by the repetition of identities and fates within a family, Alex’s lack of connection to his family ends up looking somewhat ideal. 
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Quotes
In the present day, it is the first week of October. Iris picks flowers from her garden and then goes to the cemetery, where she finds a young woman already sitting at Laura’s grave. The woman is wearing black and has long dark hair. For a second, Iris thinks it’s Sabrina and she’s overjoyed, but then she realizes it isn’t Sabrina. She sees that the woman is crying and thinks, “Laura touches people. I do not.”
This passage conveys the same sense of competition between the sisters that emerged in the description of the dinner party. While it might seem bizarre that Iris still feels competitive with Laura now that she’s dead, the novel suggests that sibling rivalry is powerful and long-lasting.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Back in the 1930s, the usual a writeup about the button factory Labour Day picnic is printed in the local newspaper. It features the photograph that Elwood Murray took of Iris, Laura, and Alex, although it only names Alex as “an Out-of-Town Visitor.” Reenie is horrified by the picture, which she considers immodest. Laura, however, goes to see Elwood to tell him that she wants to be a photographer when she grows up, and he agrees to let her assist him in the darkroom several times a week. He plans to teach her hand-tinting, the practice of carefully adding color to black and white images. Surprisingly, Reenie doesn’t object to this arrangement; she was sure it won’t be dangerous because Elwood is a “pansy.”
Both Iris and Laura must find sneaky, indirect ways to explore their own agency and freedom. While Laura might be genuinely interested in becoming a photographer, this interest is rather sudden and unexplained, suggesting that there may be other motivations for her sudden determination to start working in Elwood’s studio.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Laura ends up stealing some materials from Elwood’s studio and hand-tinting the photographs of Chase family members hanging in Avilion. When Iris catches Laura doing this, she chastises her, particularly for her choice to paint the subjects’ faces unrealistic colors like blue or green. Laura also steals the negative of the photograph Elwood took of her, Iris, and Alex. As soon as she does this, she immediately ceases going to the studio, which makes Elwood suspicious.
In this passage, Laura’s ulterior motive is revealed: she wanted to get access to the negative of the photograph Elwood took. The fact that she went to such lengths to get it indicates that she already has strong feelings about Alex, which again portends a sense of competition between Laura and Iris for his affections. However, given that Laura is younger, it’s likely that her feelings for Alex won’t be reciprocated.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Several days a week, Laura assists at a soup kitchen which gave free meals to the men who jump on and off trains, traveling the country trying to find work. Laura begs Reenie for leftover bones from the Avilion kitchen, which Reenie reluctantly gives her. Reenie comments on the striking similarity between Laura and Liliana. Iris, meanwhile, is learning the button business from Norval, who teaches her how to help out with the balance sheets. At the factory, Iris feels that the other workers watch her disdainfully. One day, Elwood comes to Avilion to tell Reenie and Iris that Laura has been “seen around town” with Alex. He expressed horror that Alex, an adult man, is “taking advantage” of a 14-year-old girl.
It is intriguing that Reenie seems to disapprove of Laura’s efforts to help the poor and hungry considering that Reenie idolized Liliana as a saint for her work with the needy. Clearly, it is not the fact that Laura is helping the vulnerable that upsets Reenie, but rather the way she’s going about it. Indeed, whereas Liliana was more meek and thus more respectable according to the social norms of the time, Laura’s behavior is erratic and rebellious, which disturbs Reenie.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
When Reenie tells Laura about Elwood’s claims, Laura nonchalantly refused to deny them. She explains that she and Alex have been talking about religion; she’s been trying to reconvert him after his turn to atheism. She’s unconcerned about his age or the idea that other people are talking about them. Iris feels that Laura is “making a fool of her” somehow, though she doesn’t fully understand why. Reenie wants Iris to talk to Laura, but Iris feels that she can no longer get through to her sister. Iris takes to walking around town by herself. She passes the movie theater but she didn’t go in because she isn’t allowed; she won’t enter a theater until after she’s married.  
Throughout the novel, Laura’s feelings about Alex remain somewhat ambiguous. She is clearly attached to him and treasures him in some way, but considering the way she talks about him in this passage, her attachment is arguably more innocent and platonic than romantic (and certainly not sexual). Of course, one could argue that this is unsurprising considering Laura is only 14. At the same time, many 14-year-olds are interested in sex, even if only in a theoretical way.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
In present-day October, children soon will come to Iris’s house trick-or-treating, but she will turn the lights off and pretend to not be home. She buys a doughnut and coffee again, and she sits on the park bench in the sun, convinced that people are staring at her. She tries to tell herself not to care what people think, but unlike Laura, she “always did care.”
In many ways, the elderly Iris resembles a stereotype: a misanthropic and bitter old woman who chooses to isolate herself. Yet the novel shows that beneath this stereotypical façade, Iris is a complex and contradictory person.
Themes
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
In October 1934, rumors spread about the workers at the button factory unionizing and “outside agitators” getting involved. These agitators are thought to be highly suspect, “criminal” and “foreign.” Reenie and Elwood express fears that they will unleash violence similar to that of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. In September, Norval laid off several workers and gave the rest shorter hours. The demand for buttons is down, and for quite a while, the factory has been selling its products for less money than it costs to make them. In December, Norval announces that the factory will be temporarily closing and he asks that the workers be patient. He then goes home and drinks himself into a stupor. Hearing him crash around, Laura said that she will pray for him.
While the Bolshevik Revolution certainly was violent, the way it is invoked by the characters in the novel is not usually from an informed perspective, but rather one that views Bolshevism as a mysterious, terrifying bogeyman. Of course, there is a certain irony to the way in which the characters in the novel vilify communism in a moment in which the very worst sides of capitalism were most apparent.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Quotes
A few days after Norval announces that the factory will close, the union holds a meeting, during which they vilify Norval and his greed, “his big house and fancy daughters.” Norval stops coming to eat in the dining room. Callie comes to see him, saying that she’s horrified by how he’s treating his workers. A vicious argument ensues, which leads to them breaking up. The next week, a general strike takes place in solidarity with the button factory workers. Laura expresses concern about Alex, who she knows is “mixed up in it somehow.” Meanwhile, Richard comes to Avilion and meets with Norval in his study. The next day, a riot begins at a rally outside the Port Ticonderoga town hall. The rioters burn effigies of Norval, Iris, and Laura. 
Norval’s choices in this part of the novel are mysterious, making it difficult to adjudicate the extent to which he is blameworthy for everything that happens during and after the riots. He evidently didn’t want the factory to close, although it is not clear if this was out of a sense of concern for his workers, to save his own reputation, or both. The fact that he is willing to meet with Richard, however, does arguably indicate a level of indisputable culpability in all that goes wrong after this point.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
The rioters set fire to the factory and smash the windows of businesses that refused to join the strike. They break into the offices of the local newspaper, beat up Elwood, and break the machines. Iris feels scared but also excited. At dinner that night, Laura refuses to eat. The next day, the military arrives to subdue the rioters, followed by the Mounted Police. The police come to Avilion and ask to speak with Iris and Laura about Alex. They ask Laura if she knows that he’s a “known subversive and radical” who has been “stirring up trouble” in the relief camps. When Laura claims ignorance of Alex’s subversive activities, they put increasing pressure on her, but Laura maintains that she wouldn’t tell them even if she knew something. 
In this passage, Laura leverages her power in order to deflect the police’s attention away from Alex. Her power is somewhat perverse because it emerges from her perceived powerlessness: she is a young, wealthy, “innocent” girl, and for this reason the police underestimate her. Although they are a little suspicious, it seems they consider it implausible that Laura would actually be mixed up in radical activities.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
As soon as the police leaves, Iris tells Laura that she knows Laura is hiding Alex in the house, and Laura admitted that he’s in the cellar. Iris cries out in exasperation, but they both laugh at the idea of Reenie finding him by accident. Iris suggests they hide him in the attic. After waiting until Reenie goes to bed, Iris creeps down to the cellar and finds Alex, telling him, “You should be ashamed of yourself.” They speak flirtatiously: Alex hints at the scandal that would ensue if people thought he and Laura were having an affair, but he assures Iris that Laura is too young for him. He explains that Laura is hiding him out of a sense of Christian duty to care for the vulnerable. Iris asks Alex if he started the fire, and he insists that he didn’t.
While Laura takes everything to do with hiding Alex seriously, Alex himself has a more playful, mischievous attitude toward the situation. Indeed, there is a clear sense in which he enjoys being hidden by the girls, as evidenced both by his joking about having an affair with Laura and his flirtatious exchange with Iris. It apparently doesn’t bother Alex that his attention is divided between the two sisters—in fact, he seems to enjoy it.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Iris and Laura discuss the plan for how they will keep Alex alive without revealing to anyone else that he’s in the attic. They never discuss what they’ll do if someone does find out. They smuggle their leftovers for him, being careful to avoid even bringing him a plate, because Reenie would have noticed it was missing. Presently, Iris reflects that Reenie probably was suspicious, yet perhaps tried to preserve her own ignorance so that he could honestly tell the authorities she didn’t know anything if they were caught. Alex asks for cigarettes, and they bring some for him, asking him to limit himself to one a day, which he doesn’t do.
Taking care of Alex serves as a strange kind of coming-of-age ritual for the girls. Having been taken care of (and at times pampered) their whole lives, they now have the responsibility of keeping another human being alive. Furthermore, it is significant that this person is a young man in whom they both seem to have some level of romantic interest.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Iris and Laura also bring Alex water to wash with, and they then dump it out in secret. While Iris is waiting for him to finish washing, she finds the idea of him naked on the other side of the door inexplicably “painful.” The newspapers accuse Alex of being “an arsonist and a murderer” whose education has led him to become an extremist and commit evil acts. Wanted posters featuring the picture of Alex that Elwood took are hung up around town. Meanwhile, Alex asks the girls to bring him writing materials. Taking care of Alex brings the sisters closer together. In the evenings, they talk to Alex; after they leave him, Iris thinks about him while she’s going to sleep.
It is poignant that caring for Alex initially has the effect of bringing Iris and Laura closer together, because later in the novel, his presence in their lives has the opposite effect. Furthermore, it is obvious why this is a thrilling and exciting time for the girls. Secretly harboring an attractive young fugitive who’s featured in wanted posters all around town is precisely the kind of adventurous, rebellious, romantic mission they dreamed of.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
One day, Iris goes up to the attic without Laura for the first time. She finds Alex smoking, and when he notices she’s there, he jumps and drops his cigarette. They both kneel down to try and put out the sparks, and in one swift moment, Alex kissed Iris. Iris isn’t sure if she was expecting this or how she felt about it at the time. Alex tries to take her clothes off, but she pushes him off her and runs away, feeling that he’s laughing at her behind her back. Iris knows that if it were to happen again, she would be in trouble. She tells Laura that they needed to find a way to sneak Alex out of Port Ticonderoga.
Iris’s report of this scene is notable for its complete lack of detail regarding how she felt about it. Beyond surprise, Iris does not articulate her reaction to Alex suddenly kissing her. Because female sexuality was so harshly policed at the time, it is reasonable to conclude that this unwillingness to narrate her own feelings corresponds to the shame Iris has been taught to feel about her own desire.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Alex, meanwhile, complains about developing cabin fever. By the time the new year comes, Iris and Laura decide that the time was right for him to escape. They steal one of Norval’s old coats, make Alex a packed lunch, and hug him goodbye. After he leaves, the girls both cry. In the attic, they find a notebook in which he’d written a long list of strange-sounding words, such as “quartzephyr,” “jocynth,” and “zycron.” The girls are suspicious of the list, and Laura says she’ll burn it in the fire.
Although there is no explicit explanation of the strange words Alex writes down, the fact that one of the words is “zycron” should alert the reader to the connection between Alex and the man depicted in The Blind Assassin. This, in turn, indicates that the list of words are names for places or alien species Alex is trying out for his science-fiction writing.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
A week later, Laura gives Iris a print she made of the photograph Elwood took of them and Alex. Laura had cut it so that only Iris’s hand is visible, and she tells Iris that she knows this is how Iris will want to remember it. Laura admits that she made a corresponding version for herself with Iris cut out. Iris reflects that “This was the closest [Laura] ever came, in my hearing, to a confession of love for Alex Thomas.” After that day, the sisters don’t speak of Alex again.
The two versions of the photographs—each with one of the girls cut out—are highly significant. They represent how two people can have interlocking yet ultimately separate and even conflicting accounts of a given event. To each of the girls, Alex means the same thing yet also something totally different.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
In the present day, Iris dreams that she is covered in thick hair. She thinks that she wakes up but she actually doesn’t, and she dreams that Richard is there. When Iris actually does wake up, her heart is beating fast and she thinks about how nightmares can kill people. She returns to the story she’s been telling. In early 1935, Laura is spending more and more time helping the church’s relief efforts, and Iris rarely sees her. The company that insured the button factory refuses to pay for it to be rebuilt after the fire, which means that it remained closed. Norval spends increasing amounts of time in Toronto, sometimes bringing Iris with him.
While harboring Alex brought the sisters closer together, in this part of the novel they drift apart. Likely as a way of coping with her grief (as well as indulging her unfailing desire to help others), Laura retreats into the relief effort. Although this is obviously altruistic, in a way it is also self-indulgent—Laura is able to escape the responsibilities placed on Iris, which Iris is certainly not enthused about having to live up to.
Themes
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Norval is doing business with Richard Griffen. Reluctantly, he’s looking for people to buy the factory, but no one wants it. By this point, Norval is thin and his hands are always shaking. Laura has also stopped eating, seemingly because she doesn’t believe she deserves food while others are going hungry. During their trips to Toronto, Iris and Norval often have dinner with Richard. Iris is silent while the men discussed politics; Richard expresses his hatred of communism and his approval of Hitler’s economic policies. Iris is usually bored during these conversations and she only nods absently. 
There is a fascinating contrast here between Laura’s saint-like asceticism and the self-harm of Norval’s alcoholism versus Richard’s unruffled confidence and approval of far-right politics. Norval and Laura’s behavior seems to be a confused and guilt-ridden way of reacting to the Depression. Richard, meanwhile, breezes ahead despite being surrounded by terrible suffering.
Themes
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Violence and Death Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
One day, Iris, Norval, and Richard are supposed to have lunch together at the Royal York Hotel. Just before they’re about to go inside, though, Norval pauses and tells Iris that she and Richard will be dining alone and that Richard is going to propose to her. When Iris asks her father what she should do, he replies that the choice is hers, but that “a certain amount depends on it.” He explains that if Iris marries Richard, Laura’s future will be secure and it might be possible to save the button business. Iris says nothing, which Norval interprets as agreement. Richard arrives and takes Iris away on her own. She doesn’t have strong feelings about him, either positive or negative. Yet that night, she’s consumed by dread.
Sadly, this kind of pressure and coercion was not unusual at the time. Indeed, while it might not have been articulated so obviously, most women Iris’s age (and particularly the oldest sister in a family) would have known that their choice of husband would dramatically impact the family’s fortunes and they would have to act accordingly. Iris’s situation may be sad, but it is certainly not unusual.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
A week after Iris and Richard get engaged, Iris is invited to lunch with Winifred at the Arcadian Court, a restaurant on top of Simpsons department store. Iris wears her “best daytime outfit” but still doesn’t fit in with her fancy surroundings. Winifred is wearing green. She tells Iris to call her Freddie, adding, “I want us to be great chums.” She looks at Iris’s ring, explaining that she helped Richard choose it. Winifred is about 30, older than Iris but seven years younger than Richard. She explains that she and Richard are “such great pals” and that she organizes his social calendar for him. In hindsight, Iris knows Winifred must have been disappointed in how she behaved during this lunch.
Significantly, Winifred’s way of speaking is unprecedented thus far in the book. Her clipped and cheerful manner is seemingly a product of the privileged, superficial life she’s been leading. Furthermore, it is a way of speaking that tends to conceal her true feelings. What Winifred is saying here and what she actually means are two different things, as Iris indicates that Winifred actually disapproved of her despite her polite airs.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
Winifred indicates that she wants to shape Iris into a new kind of person. She mentions Adelia and how the Montfort women were known for their wonderful style. Winifred insists that with the right adjustments, Iris “could be charming,” but Iris feels that this is untrue. Once they finish lunch, Winifred begins describing all the tasks and events that will be part of planning the wedding. In hindsight, Iris feels that Winifred was a “pimp.” The wedding is to take place in Rosedale, the “fake-Tudor barn” where Winifred lives. Winifred brings Iris clothes and coaches her in how to behave around society people. Iris confesses that, although she hates Winifred, these lessons did prove to be helpful.  
Iris’s use of the word “pimp” shatters the image of genteel elegance and propriety conveyed by Winifred in this passage. Indeed, perhaps part of the reason that Winifred is so devoted to the shallow, superficial aspects of life is that the truth of who she is so abhorrent.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
The night before the wedding, Laura creeps into the bedroom in Rosedale where Iris is supposed to be preparing herself for the big day. Laura tells Iris that Iris too young to get married and that she doesn’t believe Iris actually wants to do it. Iris replies that the decision is a practical one and explains that it’s necessary in order to protect their father. Laura remains adamant that Iris shouldn’t marry and warns her, “But you’ll have to let him touch you.” After Laura leaves, Iris stares at her trousseau, which frightens her, although she tries to remember that it signals nothing more than traveling to a new place.
Laura’s decision to beg Iris not to marry Richard could be interpreted in two different ways. On one hand, perhaps Laura is admirable for attempting to protect her sister from what she perceived would be a terrible marriage. At the same time, there is arguably something childishly selfish about urging Iris to back out of something that Iris was essentially obligated to do.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
In Iris’s wedding picture, she smiles without her teeth. She feels completely dissociated from the version of herself displayed in this photograph. Richard, meanwhile, is still somewhat young and handsome. Laura somehow spoils each one of the group photographs by either frowning, biting her nails, or moving in each one. Norval is exceedingly drunk on the wedding day and at a certain point disappears altogether. After the wedding, Richard takes Iris away to a room at the Royal York Hotel—the same location where the wedding reception took place—where they have sex for the first time, an experience Iris finds unsettling and painful.
Although one’s wedding day is supposed to be a happy occasion, the reality for many women like Iris in arranged marriages was that it was instead defined by fear, unease, and disappointment. Iris has so little agency over her own life at this point that her wants and needs seemingly no longer matter at all.
Themes
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon
The next day, the newlyweds takes a train to New York, where they have dinner with a number of Richard’s wealthy friends. These people act “fearful” and “deferential” around Richard. In hindsight, Iris realizes that Richard was probably trying to avoid spending time alone with her. His friends comment on how young Iris is. A couple of days later, Iris and Richard take a ship across the Atlantic Ocean, a journey that makes Iris terribly seasick. She’s relieved that her illness gives them an excuse not to have sex. Under pressure from Richard, Iris forces herself to leave their cabin, attending a cabaret performance. On the third day at sea, Iris goes onto the deck alone; she looks out at the ocean and throws a penny into it, but she refrains from making a wish.
During this era, both the law and cultural norms essentially refuted the idea that a woman could be raped by her own husband. Even if a woman didn’t want to have sex, it was seen as part of her duty as a wife to comply if a man wanted to. As a result, Iris is constantly looking for external excuses not to have sex with Richard (such as her seasickness) because simply telling him that she didn’t want to would not be concerned a valid objection.
Themes
Doomed Love Theme Icon
Oppression vs. Resistance Theme Icon
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity Theme Icon